Project description
A digital access boost for natural history collections
The world’s natural history collections contain at least 2 billion specimens of which an estimated 55 % reside in Europe. Enabling researchers to access these collections is vital. The creation of an integrated European infrastructure for natural history collections is underway. EU-funded SYNTHESYS PLUS is a pan-European natural history collection infrastructure project, and the fourth iteration of the SYNTHESYS programme. Its researchers are developing methods for collections digitalisation, digitisation workflows and new forms of collections access, laying the foundations for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), a massive scientific infrastructure project. DiSSCo represents 120 European museums from 21 countries who are positioning their collections at the centre of data-driven scientific excellence and innovation.
Objective
European natural history collections are a critical infrastructure for meeting the most important challenge humans face over the next 30 years – mapping a sustainable future for ourselves and the natural systems on which we depend – and for answering fundamental scientific questions about ecological, evolutionary, and geological processes. Since 2004 SYNTHESYS has been an essential instrument supporting this community, underpinning new ways to access and exploit collections, harmonising policy and providing significant new insights for thousands of researchers, while fostering the development of new approaches to face urgent societal challenges. SYNTHESYS+ is a fourth iteration of this programme, and represents a step change in evolution of this community. For the first time SYNTHESYS+ brings together the European branches of the global natural science organisations (GBIF, TDWG, GGBN and CETAF) with an unprecedented number of collections, to integrate, innovate and internationalise our efforts within the global scientific collections community. Major new developments addressed by SYNTHESYS+ include the delivery of a new virtual access programme, providing digitisation on demand services to a significantly expanded user community; the construction of a European Loans and Visits System (ELViS) providing, for the first time, a unified gateway to accessing digital, physical and molecular collections; and a new data processing platform (the Specimen Data Refinery), applying cutting edge artificial intelligence to dramatically speed up the digital mobilisation of natural history collections. The activities of SYNTHESYS+ form a critical dependency for DiSSCo - the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, which is the European collection communities ESFRI initiative. DiSSCo will undertake the maintenance and sustainability of SYNTHESYS+ products at the end of the programme.
Fields of science
Keywords
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
SW7 5BD London
United Kingdom
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Participants (33)
1010 Wien
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1000 Bruxelles / Brussel
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3080 Tervuren
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1860 Meise
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1000 Bruxelles / Brussel
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11579 Praha
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14195 Berlin
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10115 Berlin
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60325 Frankfurt
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70191 Stuttgart
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53113 Bonn
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1165 Kobenhavn
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2100 Copenhagen
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
28006 Madrid
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00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
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75005 Paris
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Participation ended
75008 Paris
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19013 Attikia Anavissos
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11523 Athina
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1088 Budapest
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91904 Jerusalem
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2333 CR Leiden
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1703 DH Heerhugowaard
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
4901 HW Oosterhout
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SE 114 18 Stockholm
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405 30 Goeteborg
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EH3 5LR Edinburgh
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Legal entity established in a non-associated third country that is not eligible for funding under Article 10 of the Regulation (EU) No 1290/2013 laying down the rules for participation and dissemination in Horizon 2020.
N1G 2W1 Guelph
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TW93AB Richmond
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G51 1EA Glasgow
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
M13 9PL Manchester
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20560 Washington Dc
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75015 Paris
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.