Réseau suisse des collections d'histoire naturelle (SwissCollNet)

In 2019, the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) and a large network of experts from museums, botanical gardens, institutions of higher education and partners have joined forces and established SwissCollNet, the Swiss Natural History Collections Network.

With more than 60 million specimens of animals, plants, fungi, rocks, soil samples and fossils, Switzerland’s museums, universities, and botanical gardens store a remarkable scientific and patrimonial national treasure. However, less than one in five of these objects is digitised. Thanks to SwissCollNet, not only have 1 million more objects been digitised, but their data is now open access for research, education and society!

Objectives

• Promote modern standards in management and curation of collections
• Modernise and digitise natural history collections
• Provide open access to harmonised specimen data of Swiss institutions through an online-portal, the Swiss Natural History Collections (SwissNatColl)
• Promote and support the scientific potential of collections for research
• Integrate the Swiss natural history collections into international initiatives