National Collection Strategy

Natural history collection community in Switzerland

Most natural history collections in Switzerland are housed in publicly funded natural history museums, science centres, botanical gardens or conservatories as well as in universities and similar research institutions. These institutions are usually affiliated with a cantonal or municipal administration, and as such their collections are protected by different laws, and to varying degrees. The tasks of storing, managing, curating, enhancing, and ensuring accessibility to collections are ongoing and the resources associated with the maintenance of the facilities, the collections, specimen collecting efforts or acquisitions, and of the collections-based staff are usually carried by the institutions or the administrations that oversee the institutions.

Strategy for natural history collections in Switzerland 2025-2035

The Strategy for natural history collection in Switzerland 2025-2035, the first of its kind in Switzerland, is a nationwide approach to maintain, to enhance and to use natural history collections.

Developed by and for natural history institutions in Switzerland, the strategy has been endorsed by the Directors or senior managers from 37 Swiss institutions or entities and is based on 6 strategic pillars.

For each of the strategic pillars the directors, curators, collections managers, and scientists of the contributing institutions identified a set of 52 strategic activities. Under each pillar, the proposed activities were divided into joint actions to be undertaken collaboratively from within the community, and institutional actions to be undertaken, to the extent possible, by the institutions themselves.

This nationwide approach to supporting, maintaining, enhancing and using natural history collections reflects the general recognition of the importance of a coordinated, collaborative approach to:

• guarantee the long-term patrimonial preservation of Swiss natural history collections through the implementation of adequate management practices and standards;
• strive to digitise specimens and continue to provide physical and digital access to collections;
• maintain the infrastructure for the aggregation of and open access to data derived from natural history collections;
• promote the exchange of expertise as well as the sharing of resources and skills associated with the management, curation and digitisation of specimens;
• facilitate and undertake scientific research using natural history collections;
• enhance and develop collections through fieldwork, and the exchange or acquisition of specimens, in compliance with the national and international legislation or regulations;
• ensure the use of collections as educational, training and cultural resources.