ALBERT

Description: The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is a pan-European Research \nInfrastructure (RI) initiative. DiSSCo aims to bring together natural science collections from \n175 museums, botanical gardens, universities and research institutes across 23 countries \nin a distributed infrastructure that makes these collections physically and digitally open and \naccessible for all forms of research and innovation. DiSSCo RI entered the ESFRI \nroadmap in 2018 and successfully concluded its Preparatory Phase in early 2023. The RI \nis now transitioning towards the constitution of its legal entity (an ERIC) and the start of its \nscaled-up construction (implementation) programme. This publication is an abridged \nversion of the successful grant proposal for the DiSSCo Transition Project which has the \ngoal of ensuring the seamless transition of the DiSSCo RI from its Preparatory Phase to \nthe Construction Phase (expected to start in 2025). In this transition period, the Project will \naddress five objectives building on the outcomes of the Preparatory Phase project: \n1) Advance the DiSSCo ERIC process and complete its policy framework, ensuring the \nsmooth early-phase Implementation of DISSCo; \n2) Engage & support DiSSCo National Nodes to strengthen national commitments; \n3) Advance the development of core e-services to avoid the accumulation of technical debt \nbefore the start of the Implementation Phase; \n4) Continue international collaboration on standards & best practices needed for the \nDiSSCo service provision; and \n5) Continue supporting DiSSCo RI interim governance bodies and transition them to the \nDiSSCo ERIC formal governance. \nThe Project\xe2\x80\x99s impact will be measured against the increase in the RI\'s overall \nImplementation Readiness Level (IRL). More specifically, we will monitor its impact towards \nreaching the required level of maturity in four of the five dimensions of the IRL that can \nbenefit from further developments. These include the organisational, financial, \ntechnological and data readiness levels.

Description: DiSSCo, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, is a pan-European Research \nInfrastructure (RI) mobilising, unifying bio- and geo-diversity information connected to the \nspecimens held in natural science collections and delivering it to scientific communities and \nbeyond. Bringing together 120 institutions across 21 countries and combining earlier \ninvestments in data interoperability practices with technological advancements in \ndigitisation, cloud services and semantic linking, DiSSCo makes the data from natural \nscience collections available as one virtual data cloud, connected with data emerging from \nnew techniques and not already linked to specimens. These new data include DNA \nbarcodes, whole genome sequences, proteomics and metabolomics data, chemical data, \ntrait data, and imaging data (Computer-assisted Tomography (CT), Synchrotron, etc.), to name but a few; and will lead to a wide range of end-user services that begins with finding, \naccessing, using and improving data. DiSSCo will deliver the diagnostic information \nrequired for novel approaches and new services that will transform the landscape of what \nis possible in ways that are hard to imagine today. \nWith approximately 1.5 billion objects to be digitised, bringing natural science collections to \nthe information age is expected to result in many tens of petabytes of new data over the \nnext decades, used on average by 5,000 \xe2\x80\x93 15,000 unique users every day. This requires \nnew skills, clear policies and robust procedures and new technologies to create, work with \nand manage large digital datasets over their entire research data lifecycle, including their \nlong-term storage and preservation and open access. Such processes and procedures \nmust match and be derived from the latest thinking in open science and data management, \nrealising the core principles of \'findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable\' (FAIR). \nSynthesised from results of the ICEDIG project ("Innovation and Consolidation for Large \nScale Digitisation of Natural Heritage", EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement No. 777483) the \nDiSSCo Conceptual Design Blueprint covers the organisational arrangements, processes \nand practices, the architecture, tools and technologies, culture, skills and capacity building \nand governance and business model proposals for constructing the digitisation \ninfrastructure of DiSSCo. In this context, the digitisation infrastructure of DiSSCo must be \ninterpreted as that infrastructure (machinery, processing, procedures, personnel, \norganisation) offering Europe-wide capabilities for mass digitisation and digitisation-ondemand, \nand for the subsequent management (i.e., curation, publication, processing) and \nuse of the resulting data. The blueprint constitutes the essential background needed to \ncontinue work to raise the overall maturity of the DiSSCo Programme across multiple \ndimensions (organisational, technical, scientific, data, financial) to achieve readiness to \nbegin construction. \nToday, collection digitisation efforts have reached most collection-holding institutions \nacross Europe. Much of the leadership and many of the people involved in digitisation and \nworking with digital collections wish to take steps forward and expand the efforts to benefit \nfurther from the already noticeable positive effects. The collective results of examining \ntechnical, financial, policy and governance aspects show the way forward to operating a \nlarge distributed initiative i.e., the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) for \nnatural science collections across Europe. Ample examples, opportunities and need for \ninnovation and consolidation for large scale digitisation of natural heritage have been \ndescribed. The blueprint makes one hundred and four (104) recommendations to be \nconsidered by other elements of the DiSSCo Programme of linked projects (i.e., \nSYNTHESYS+, COST MOBILISE, DiSSCo Prepare, and others to follow) and the DiSSCo \nProgramme leadership as the journey towards organisational, technical, scientific, data and \nfinancial readiness continues. \nNevertheless, significant obstacles must be overcome as a matter of priority if DiSSCo is to \nmove beyond its Design and Preparatory Phases during 2024. Specifically, these include: \nOrganisational: \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Strengthen common purpose by adopting a common framework for policy \nharmonisation and capacity enhancement across broad areas, especially in respect \nof digitisation strategy and prioritisation, digitisation processes and techniques, data \nand digital media publication and open access, protection of and access to \nsensitive data, and administration of access and benefit sharing. \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Pursue the joint ventures and other relationships necessary to the successful \ndelivery of the DiSSCo mission, especially ventures with GBIF and other \ninternational and regional digitisation and data aggregation organisations, in the \ncontext of infrastructure policy frameworks, such as EOSC. Proceed with the \nexplicit aim of avoiding divergences of approach in global natural science \ncollections data management and research. \nTechnical: \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Adopt and enhance the DiSSCo Digital Specimen Architecture and, specifically as \na matter of urgency, establish the persistent identifier scheme to be used by \nDiSSCo and (ideally) other comparable regional initiatives. \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Establish (software) engineering development and (infrastructure) operations team \nand direction essential to the delivery of services and functionalities expected from \nDiSSCo such that earnest engineering can lead to an early start of DiSSCo \noperations. \nScientific: \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Establish a common digital research agenda leveraging Digital (extended) \nSpecimens as anchoring points for all specimen-associated and -derived \ninformation, demonstrating to research institutions and policy/decision-makers the \nnew possibilities, opportunities and value of participating in the DiSSCo research \ninfrastructure. \nData: \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Adopt the FAIR Digital Object Framework and the International Image \nInteroperability Framework as the low entropy means to achieving uniform access \nto rich data (image and non-image) that is findable, accessible, interoperable and \nreusable (FAIR). \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Develop and promote best practice approaches towards achieving the best \ndigitisation results in terms of quality (best, according to agreed minimum \ninformation and other specifications), time (highest throughput, fast), and cost \n(lowest, minimal per specimen). \nFinancial \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Broaden attractiveness (i.e., improve bankability) of DiSSCo as an infrastructure to \ninvest in. \n\xe2\x80\xa2 Plan for finding ways to bridge the funding gap to avoid disruptions in the critical \nfunding path that risks interrupting core operations; especially when the gap opens \nbetween the end of preparations and beginning of implementation due to unsolved \npolitical difficulties. \nStrategically, it is vital to balance the multiple factors addressed by the blueprint against \none another to achieve the desired goals of the DiSSCo programme. Decisions cannot be \ntaken on one aspect alone without considering other aspects, and here the various \ngovernance structures of DiSSCo (General Assembly, advisory boards, and stakeholder \nforums) play a critical role over the coming years.

Description: This paper describes the design and build of a pilot Natural Sciences Collections Digitisation Dashboard (CDD). The CDD will become a key service for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections Research Infrastructure (DiSSCo) and aims to improve the discoverability of natural science collections (NSCs) held in European institutions, both digitised and undigitised. Furthermore, it will serve as a dynamic visual assessment tool for strategic decision-making, including the prioritisation of digitisation. The CDD pilot includes high-level information from nine European NSCs, covering the number of objects, taxonomic scope, storage type, chronostratigraphy (Earth Science Collections), geographical region and level of detail in digitisation. This information is structured through a standardised Collection Classification Scheme, which uses high-level categorisation to describe physical natural science collections.