Events

USDA National Agriculture Library, Beltsville, MD, September 19-21 2016

Stressors and Drivers of Food Security: Evidence from Scientific Collections

(Read more about this initiative at the Food Security page...)

Meeting Documents

Event photos

Press Release

Storify

Close

SPNHC, Berlin 2016

31st Annual SPNHC Meeting & 2nd Annual GGBN Meeting

The Secretariat Office represented SciColl and GRSciColl at the 31st Annual Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and the 2nd Annual Global Genome Biodiversity Network meetings, co-located in Berlin, Germany.

Type	Speaker	Title
Keynote- GGBN	David Schindel	Thematic, Demand-driven Sampling: Economics of Three Strategies
Presentation - GGBN	Eileen Graham	A Global Registry for Scientific Collections: Striking a balance between disciplinary detail and interdisciplinary discoverability
Presentation - SPNHC	David Schindel	Scientific Collections, Food Security and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Demonstration - DemoCamp	Eileen Graham	Global Registry of Scientific Collections: Function and Application (No presentation recorded)

Close

Washington, DC 2016

Designing GRSciColl Version 2.0

Text-text-text

Close

Gainesville, FL 2015

30th Annual SPNHC Meeting

The Secretariat Office represented SciColl and the global registries (GRSciColl & GRBio) at the 30th Annual Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) meeting in Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Type	Speaker	Title
Presentation	David Schindel	Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories (GRBio): Status Report and Future Directions
Presentation	Eileen Graham	Scientific Collections: Engaging Across Disciplinary Boundaries to Combat Emerging Infectious Diseases
Poster	Adele Crane	Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories: Function and Application
Demonstration	Adele Crane	Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories: Function and Application

Close

Washington, DC 2015

SciColl/CBOL Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories (GRBio) Community Workshop

The Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories (GRBio) was launched in 2013 as a merger of four online information resources about biodiversity repositories and their collections. The design of GRBio was developed as a consensus of features in these databases. Scientific Collections International (SciColl) and the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) hosted an NSF-supported workshop to review the successes and shortcomings of GRBio's design after 18 months of operation, and to gather community input for development of a new version of GRBio and GRSciColl.

An archive of the event documents include the Workshop Report, an Agenda, a brief history of GRBio, the GRBio data structure, and a Participant List. The following presentations were provided by the participants:

Session	Topic	Speaker
	Introduction to GRBio	D. Schindel
A	Index Herbariorum	B. Thiers
A	GBIF and ALA	D. Hobern
A	WFCC	P. Desmeth
B	Canadensys	D. Shorthouse
B	CETAF	A. Casino
C	iDigBio	F. Michonneau
C	Specify	A. Bentley
D	Ideas for GRBio	R. Page
D	iDigBio	G. Riccardi
D	ABCD	P. Mergen
D	BISON	S. Guala
D	ZooBank	R. Pyle
D	Linking Data for Real	R. Guralnick

Close

Washington, DC 2014

SciColl/US USDHHS Emerging Zoonotic and Human Diseases Workshop

(Read more about this initiative at the Emerging Diseases page...)

Day 1's sessions were devoted to the presentation of case studies, afterwhich panelists from different disciplines were given the floor to describe how collections under their purview had or could have contributed to the case study.

Topic	Presenter	Title
Opening Remarks	David Schindel Chair of the SciColl Executive Board, Smithsonian Institution	Scientific Collections International and Zoonotic and Human Disease Research
Keynote Address	Stephen S. Morse Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health	Windows into Emerging Infections
Emergence & Detection	Joseph A. Cook Museum of Southwestern Biology & University of New Mexico	Emergence and Detection of Hantaviruses in Southwestern US and Beyond
Characterization	David Rollinson Natural History Museum London	Value of Collections for Characterizing NTDs: The Case of Schistosomiasis in West Africa
Mitigation & Intervention	Judy Hewitt National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health	Outbreak of a Novel Hemorrhagic Fever in Southern Africa and Virus Identification
Prediction & Monitoring	Gene G. Olinger, Jr National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health	Prediction and Monitoring - Goal: Early Warning System, Data: Leading and Lagging

Day 2’s sessions were entirely discussion-based with the goal of compiling new strategies for collaboration, communication and scientific collection use across disciplines. The results of these discussions are the basis of the meeting report.

These topics included:

• Examples of cross-disciplinary efforts that streamline the transfer of collections-derived data and information;
• Data gaps and/or instances of disconnect between stakeholders and scientific collections;
• Novel approaches to research, communication and cross-disciplinary integration of data provided by scientific collections; and
• Changes in institutional, national, and international policies, procedures, and best practices that could enable these novel approaches by facilitating access to and sharing of samples from scientific collections.

Close

Cardiff 2014

Scientific Collections and Environmental Change: Breakout Session at SPNHC2014

Scientific Collections International (SciColl) and The Natural History Museum London (NHM) hosted a session at the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) 2014 Annual Meeting. The main theme was the integration of scientific collections into environmental change research as natural history and other scientific collections offer relatively under-utilized or under-integrated sources of critical evidence about the past, and hold the potential for refining our understanding of how natural systems respond to environmental change.

Schedule	Presenter	Title
16:10	Ellinor Michel, NHM	Unlocking Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change
16:25	Mark Spencer, NHM	Unlocking the Environmental Change Vault at the NHM - Orchids, Butterflies and Thyme!
16:40	Judith Price, Canadian Museum of Nature	DOAD, NODE and NANODe: integrating ostracod collections and databases for environmental change research applications
16:55	Selina Brace, NHM	Investigating the impact of late quaternary environmental changes using ancient DNA from collared lemming
17:10	Matthew Collins, University of York	Forgotten molecules, long lost records
17:30	Eileen Graham, SciColl	Discussing Evidence Panel Q & A: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change

Close

Suva 2013

Connecting Biodiversity Collections in the Pacific:
Digitization through DNA Barcoding and Informatics

David E. Schindel, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

Beth Mantle, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Reference collections in museums, herbaria, botanical gardens, zoos and other repositories are critical infrastructure for research, education, regulation and legislation related to biodiversity. These collections provide documentation of research results as well as long-term changes in nature. Patterns of ecological, evolutionary and anthropogenic changes often go unseen and undocumented until samples from these collections material are analyzed and re-analyzed using the latest technology. In order to be accessible and effective, reference collections need to be digitized and their data and metadata made available to the research and education community, to policy-makers, and to the general public. Digitization in the most general sense is the association of an organism and its characteristics to a unique identifier that can be indexed for later searching and retrieval. It can take several forms, ranging from digital capture of label data (date and place of collection, taxonomic identification) to digital image capture and even DNA sequencing.

This full day session included a half-day symposium of contributed presentations on DNA barcoding and a half-day instructional workshop on biodiversity informatics. The DNA barcoding symposium contributed toward development of a regional strategy for Oceania for construction and use of standardized barcode libraries. These libraries could serve basic research in ecology and evolution and/or applications such as the protection of endangered species and control of invasive alien species such as agricultural pests. The biodiversity informatics workshop showcased initiatives such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and digitization initiatives such as iDigBio and Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH). This session explored applications and network tools appropriate for the small and scattered countries and territories of Oceania. Participants learned the latest approaches to the digitization of natural history collections and explored how these could be applied to their collections. The session concluded with a round-table discussion on strategic development of, and support for, biodiversity informatics in the Oceania region.

Close

Paris 2013

Interim Executive Board Meeting

The second meeting of the SciColl Interim Executive Board occurred in April 2013 in Paris, France. The meeting focused on finalizing administrative concerns regarding the official formation of SciColl, presenting and discussing the research initiatives and other activities, and addressing Secretariat Office budget and function. The meeting concluded with a signing ceremony where the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by two National Member representatives and seven Institutional Member representatives. Upon these signatures, SciColl was established and the Interim Executive Board became the official SciColl Executive Board.

9:30am:	Welcome, introductions, review of plans for SciColl Launch Ceremony
9:40am:	Goals for Board meeting SciColl membership and operating budget Review of SciColl governance Preliminary plans for Secretariat Office at Smithsonian Institution
Presentation and discussion of preliminary plans for Research Initiatives
10:00am:	Food Security, United States
10:30am:	Zoonotic/Human Diseases, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
11:00am:	Coffee/tea break
11:30am:	Global Change, Natural History Museum London
12:00pm:	Human Migration, Australia
12:30pm:	Priorities for Cross-Cutting Issues Outreach to new types of collections Registry of collections Digitization of collections Increasing accessibility and use of collections
2:00pm:	Discussion of Activities and Goals for Year 1: Activities under four research initiatives Formation and activities of cross-cutting working groups Additional funding needed for initiatives and working groups Outreach, documentation, and advocacy activities Membership expansion Possible Board meetings
3:00pm:	Discussion and decisions concerning allocation of operating budget Subvention of workshops, other meetings Staffing and/or contractors Secretariat Office operations
4:00pm:	Adjourn to Global Science Forum meeting for SciColl launch ceremony

 

SciColl Launch Ceremony Agenda
4:30pm:	Welcome by the Global Science Forum chairman and representatives from the French ministry of Higher Education and Research
4:40pm:	Introduction, history, objectives of SciColl (David Schindel)
5:00pm:	Presentation of ‘forecast’ of SciColl initiatives, activities and impact
5:40pm:	Signing of SciColl Memorandum of Understanding by representatives of
6:00-7:00pm:	Cocktail reception

Close

Kuala Lumpur 2011

SciColl Symposium/Workshop on Scientific Collections in the Pacific

22nd Pacific Science Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 14-17 June 2011

http://www.barcodeoflife.org/psa/collections.html

Close

Melbourne 2011

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)
Collected presentations (Archive)

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. 

Close

Brussels 2010

International Coordination of an Interdisciplinary Global Research Infrastructure

Brussels SciColl Conference Report (pdf, 192kb)

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, 8-9 February 2010

Object-based scientific collections are the essential infrastructure for research in many fields of science.  Fields such as biology, earth and space science, anthropology, and biomedicine rely on the specimens in permanent collections that are held in museums, herbaria, culture collections, tissue banks and other institutions around the world.  International cooperation within each discipline has developed to great degrees in some cases such as biology, in which a Global Biodiversity Information Facility has been established.  In contrast, very little collaboration and coordination has developed across disciplinary boundaries, despite the importance of interdisciplinary research.  The OECD’s Global Science Forum has catalyzed the development of Scientific Collections International (SciColl), an international and interdisciplinary coordinating mechanism.  SciColl has a dual mission to increase the scientific impact of collections and to improve their organizational management and efficiency. 

The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences will host the first SciColl conference in Brussels on 8-9 February 2009.  This conference is sponsored by the European Science Foundation and by the Belgian Science PolicyOffice. It will bring together 60-80 researchers and representatives of diverse scientific collections, their parent institutions, government and research funding agencies and other stakeholders concerned with scientific collections.  Participants will be selected to ensure balanced representation of geographic regions and scientific disciplines.  The goals of the conference are to:

• Raise awareness of the potential benefits to science and society of greater international and interdisciplinary coordination of scientific collections
• Present and discuss the proposed SciColl mission, governance, and work programme
• Discuss potential SciColl activities that will provide benefits to collections in the form of higher efficiency, standards based on best practices, and improved workforce training
• Explore potential interdisciplinary research initiatives that rely on access to scientific collections
• Participate in a Science Symposium that focuses on SciColl’s ‘pioneer’ research initiative: “Collection-based Research on Global Change since the Dawn of Humanity”
• Disseminate information on the benefits and obligations of SciColl membership, and to encourage institutional membership in SciColl.

 

Conference Agenda  

Monday, 8 February 2010:

 

9:00 – 10:00 Session 1:  Welcome and Overview; Session chair Patrick Grootaert

• Welcome by host organization (pdf, 2.08Mb)
  Dr. Patrick Grootaert, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels

• The global landscape of scientific collections (pdf, 166Kb)
  Dr. Scott Miller, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA

• SciColl: Overview of the concept (pdf, 996Kb)
  Dr. Richard Lane, Natural History Museum, London, UK

• SciColl as part of the research infrastructure landscape (pdf, 1.19Mb)
  Dr. Marc Heppener, Director of Science and Strategy Development, European Science Foundation

10:00 – 10:30 Coffee break 

10:30 – 12:30 Session 2:  The role of collections in global research: What are limits of current information and what new information is needed for breakthroughs? Session chair David Schindel

• Introduction of proposed SciColl research programme on Environmental Change (pdf, 3.18Mb)
  Dr. David Schindel, Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA

• Climate, Environment, and Ecosystem Change from Paleo Proxy Collections (pdf, 2.46Mb)
  Dr. David Anderson, World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Colorado, USA

• Hypothesis-driven research of changing disease patterns: The role of collections with three case studies (pdf, 1.87Mb)
  Dr. Gregory Glass, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

• Importance of natural history collections in climate change research
  Dr. Adrian Lister, The Natural History Museum, London, UK

• Data Management in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (pdf, 3.31Mb)
  Rob Koopman, Group on Earth Observations (GEO), Geneva, Switzerland

• Open discussion of interdisciplinary collections-based research

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch 

13:30 – 14:30 Visit to research collections 

14:30 – 15:30 Session 3:  Breakout discussion groups. Each group will discuss:

• Interdisciplinary solutions to research bottlenecks using collections 

• Other opportunities for interdisciplinary research based on collections 

• SciColl’s proposed research programme on global change 

Discussion group A: Moderators Richard Lane and Gregory Glass
Discussion group B: Moderators David Schindel and David Anderson
Discussion group C: Moderators Christoph Häuser and Michel Guiraud

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break 

16:00 – 17:30 Session 4:  Presentation and discussion of breakout discussion groups;
Session chair Richard Lane

• Rapporteur reports on obstacles and opportunities 

• Moderated discussion to identify priorities 

17:30 Adjourn 

19:00 Dinner at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences  

 

Tuesday, 9 February 2010:

 

9:00 - 10:00 Session 5:  Improving scientific collections; Session chair Leo Kriegsman

Presentations of four initiatives to improve collections and their management:
 

• SciColl’s proposed programme of work to improve collection management (pdf, 415Kb)
  Dr. Leo Kriegsman, Naturalis Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands

• Global Biological Resource Centre Network (GBRCN): Aiming to improve the management and networking of collections of laboratory-held living microorganisms and cultured cells (pdf, 1.77Mb)
  Dr. David Smith, GBRCN Demonstration Project General Manager

• Korean National Research Resources Center (pdf, 2.98Mb)
  Prof. Yeonhee Lee, Director General KNRRC, Korea
   
• SYNTHESYS Networking activities: Assessing and sharing best practice in European collections to ensure their future survival and value as an infrastructure (pdf, 1.22Mb)
  Dr. Rob Huxley, Natural History Museum, London, UK
   

10:00 – 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 – 12:30 Session 6:  Plenary discussion; Moderator Christoph Häuser 

• Proposed SciColl Programme of Work

• Identification of priorities 

• SciColl membership 

• Next steps in the development of SciColl 

12:30 Conference adjourns and lunch

Afternoon:meeting of SciColl Steering Committee 

Close