The Natural Science Collections Facility

Natural Science Collections

Collections in South Africa Over 80 different institutions hold natural science collections (eg. ARC, SANBI, SAIAB, 11 museums (national, provincial and one municipal), most universities, conservation agencies Total of more than 140 different collections with >30 million specimens / samples

The South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap Seven RIs were selected by DST for implementation in 2017: The SA Network of Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites National Centre for Digital Language Resources (NCDLR) Distributed Platform for “Omics” Research (Diplomics) An expanded National Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure Natural Sciences Collection Facility Nuclear medicine DST have provided R51 million over 3 years for the NSCF

What are critical criteria for RIs? Research Infrastructure (RI) must be used by the scientific community for conducting cutting edge research for the generation, exchange and preservation of knowledge. A national RI is a service to research which: Must be openly accessible to researchers Data must be made openly accessible Must be used for training and capacity development Must address national priorities

The Natural Science Collections Facility Challenge of transforming highly fragmented landscape, with many staffing and resourcing challenges that date back many years … to meet RI requirements

Co-ordinating Hub - SANBI Central Co-ordinating Hub - SANBI Iziko Museum Natural Sciences National Museum Natural Sciences SAIAB Eastern Cape Natural Science Museums KZN Museum Durban Natural Science Museums Ditsong Museum Natural Sciences SANBI Herbaria ARC: National Collections WITS Herbarium UKZN Herbaria WITS Palaeont-ology UCT Bolus Herbarium

Overall aim of the NSCF To ensure that collections contribute, through high quality research and data, to addressing issues of socio-economic importance

Objectives (red=data related): Collections secure and accessible for research (physical and virtual collection – imaging of specimens, scanning of field notes, accession registers) Database of collections accessible and used for managing collections, research and decision-making Collections and data are used for research that addresses issues of national and global relevance Collections are used as a reference for providing services to identify biological specimens Collections valued for serving society through education, citizen science and public understanding projects

Current situation: total = +12 million specimens / specimen lots in 40 institutions; 5 million records in databases

Current situation Challenges with software – wide range used with variation even in same institution Data quality: challenges with names / identifications (outdated or missing or incorrect) locality data and georeferencing - gaps, missing, inaccurate metadata – generally missing Procedures, standards and guidelines – generally lacking Capacity – major constraint (people and skills) Images and scans of documents - no standards or systems; most documents have no digital version or even copies

Plans for the next 3 years Common standards, procedures and workflows for data Migration to standard software (BRAHMS, Specify) Upgrading of data sets: vertebrates, macrofungi, Karoo fossils, 2 plant families (verification (including taxonomic / identification), georeferencing, cleaning) Imaging of type specimens for the same groups – virtual collection Scanning of accession registers, field notes Capacity development – staff at institutions and contract staff appointed

Resources Data Working Group with representatives from institutions – provide input, take decisions back to institutions for implementation Working Group Co-ordinator – lead development of documents, and implementation of plans SANBI BIM staff – vast experience with BRAHMS SAIAB expertise and other expertise at institutions and access to server space for Specify BHL – link to expertise and equipment for document scanning Contract staff to assist with data upgrading, imaging of specimens and scanning of documents Contract specialists for assistance with training and data migration to Specify.

Thanks We are very grateful to DST for recognising the collections as important research infrastructure Thanks to the collection institutions that are participating, and those that have offered their resources to the Facility. We welcome suggestions!!