Connecting Collections
For a New Generation of Interdisciplinary Research

Scientific Collection International (SciColl) Second Conference
2-4 February, 2011, Melbourne Museum, Australia

Melbourne SciColl Conference Agenda (pdf, 25kb)
Melbourne SciColl Conference Report (pdf, 207kb)

Scientific Collections International (SciColl) held its second international conference on “Connecting Collections: A New Generation of Interdisciplinary Research” at the Melbourne Museum. The goals of the conference were to:

• Explore four major interdisciplinary research challenges and how object-based collections can enable new and exciting research approaches;
• Discuss the systemic enhancements needed to collections to support future interdisciplinary research, especially in the area of collection access, digitization, and interoperability; and
• Hold SciColl’s first business meeting, to which the Interim Executive Board and representatives of other prospective SciColl member organizations are invited. 

Background information.

SciColl is an initiative developed under OECD’s Global Science Forum (GSF) as international interdisciplinary coordinating mechanism for object-based collections. As used here “object-based collections” include specimens and samples in permanent archival repositories from the full range of scientific disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, archaeology, biology, biomedicine, earth and planetary sciences, and applied fields such as agriculture, environmental science, and technology. A proposal to launch SciColl as an organization of member countries and institutions was approved by GSF in April 2010 and letters of intent to join SciColl are now being submitted. SciColl’s mission is to increase the return on investment that countries and institutions make in their scientific collections by:

• Promoting a new generation of research on major challenges that can only be done through the use of scientific collections that are distributed across countries and disciplines; and
• Improving the management, operation, documentation, accessibility and use of collections in all disciplines by developing community standards, documenting and disseminating good practices, and catalyzing international and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Additional information is available on the SciColl website including an introductory brochure , SciColl’s Terms of Reference , and a set of Frequently Asked Questions .