The DiSSCo Flanders consortium delivers, through the FWO IRI programme, the Flemish contribution to the European Research Infrastructure (RI) DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections). DiSSCo is a RI for the physical and digital curation of European natural science collections. DiSSCo will unify all European natural science assets, sharing common access, curation, policies and practices across countries while ensuring that all the data complies with the FAIR principles in the form of digital specimens representing machine actionable FAIR digital objects. DiSSCo Flanders will provide its digitised primary specimen data alongside associated images and media to the DiSSCo RI, and will maximise linkage with other data streams such as taxonomy, DNA sequence data, and literature. The strength of DiSSCo Flanders lies in the diversity of the partners within its consortium, including governmental research institutes and universities. This translates into a broad spectrum of collections, providing valuable use-cases for the DiSSCo RI. DiSSCo will extend its services to the global research community, offering training, support, documentation, and e-services to support and enhance physical and digital access to the natural science collections in Europe. Through the FWO IRI project, DiSSCo Flanders will contribute services specialised for Flemish collections, including the implementation of a unified access policy for Flemish collections. DiSSCo Flanders will play a key role in enhancing the services offered by the European DiSSCo RI. This involves leading the development of a crowdsourcing platform (DoeDat) to engage citizens, and employing AI solutions for tasks like transcription, image segmentation, and identification services. Additionally, it will address ethical considerations such as decolonisation and legal requirements like compliance with the Nagoya Protocol. Our objective is not only to closely align with but also actively contribute to the transition and establishment of the DiSSCo ERIC, by actively participating in linked Horizon Europe projects. This application encompasses key areas spanning biological and earth sciences, information and computing sciences, citizen science, as well as legal and ethical areas. Unlocking Flemish collections and DiSSCo services will particularly benefit the research fields: - Life sciences: Biodiversity specimens and associated data will contribute to diverse areas including taxonomy of terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms, biodiversity and conservation, evolutionary biology, environmental sciences, ecology, genetics and heredity and infectious diseases. - Earth sciences: Geological, paleontological, soil collections and associated data will make significant contributions to disciplines such as geology, geochemistry, geophysics, georisks and mineralogy but also to mining and resources management. - Technology: The convergence of advancements in computer science, imaging science, information science, and artificial intelligence will revolutionise data extraction, enrichment and linkage processes for natural science specimens. - Interdisciplinary fields: Bio- and geodiversity collections contribute to research focused on agriculture, food security, and the complexities of climate change. DiSSCo positions itself both as a key data provider for scientific research and as a facilitator of scientific applications of emerging technologies. In the realms of natural and earth sciences, it acts as a key data source, strengthened by robust data-linkage methods, enhancing the access and use of collection and associated data. Furthermore, in the domain of technological advancements, DiSSCo serves as a use-case provider by leveraging cutting-edge data-extraction and data-enrichment tools. This data provision not only expedites research processes but also fosters the emergence of novel research opportunities.
DiSSCo is a Research Infrastructure (RI) for managing both physical and digital European natural science collections. It aims to unify these assets digitally across countries, ensuring data compliance with FAIR principles in the form of digital specimens representing FAIR digital objects. By bringing together 175 institutions from 23 countries, DiSSCo transforms fragmented resources into a cohesive knowledge base. It provides services for global research access and support, enhancing both physical and digital collection accessibility. By unlocking collections and integrating data, DiSSCo is accelerating research and supports novel research opportunities. DiSSCo Flanders plays a pivotal role in the DiSSCo RI by including Flander’s rich and diverse collections and ensuring their proper preservation. We will leverage our expertise and infrastructure to enhance digital collection management through innovative techniques such as data integration and AI and ensuring linkage of both the physical specimens and their digital representatives with other infrastructures. Additionally, we will foster citizen involvement via a cutting-edge crowdsourcing platform, provide services to tackle legal and ethical challenges surrounding collection management, and empower the public to actively interact with the collections. These efforts collectively will strengthen the services offered by the European DiSSCo RI and upscale the usage and visibility of Flemish collections and expertise worldwide.