Working
The Spanish natural science collections together contain more than 26 million objects (this figure will probably grow as more institutions join the Node), which represents about 1% of all the world’s collections. The information on biodiversity and geodiversity included in these objects constitutes an irreplaceable and essential heritage for current and future scientific research, for education at all levels, and for the dissemination of science to society.
In this context, preserving and improving the scientific collections entrusted to them is a duty of the institutions of DiSSCo-ES, as guarantors of their custody.
These institutions provide access to the physical objects so that they can be analyzed and reanalyzed with classical or new techniques. They can also be photographed or digitized, completely or partially, with equally classical or novel techniques such as SEM, RAMAN, fluorescence microscopy, 3D microscopy or CT-SCAN, and can even be connected to genomes generated by massive sequencing.
The data generated, which may be geographical, morphological, biochemical, molecular, taxonomic, ecological or species interaction data, among others, will be available for reuse
It is very common for collections to provide valuable information to disciplines other than those that generated them.
The Distributed System of Scientific Collections implies structuring collaborative relationships among participants who are willing to share by consensus protocols and work procedures that guarantee the traceability of the information and recognition of the institution that holds it. In that way users can establish the origin of the data.
