The Distributed System of Scientific Collections

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections is a new world-class Research Infrastructure (RI) for natural science collections. The DiSSCo RI works for the digital unification of all European natural science assets under common curation, access, policies and practices, and aims to ensure that the data is easily Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). As such, DiSSCo will transform a fragmented landscape of crucial natural science collections into an integrated knowledge base that provides interconnected hard evidence of the natural world.
DiSSCo represents the largest ever formal agreement between natural history museums, botanic gardens and collection-holding universities in the world.

DiSSCo Prepare is the primary vehicle through which the DiSSCo research infrastructure (RI) will raise its overall maturity to facilitate implementing construction in 2023. DiSSCo Prepare primary goals are to:
- Improve DiSSCo’s overall Implementation Readiness Level (IRL), that is, its ability to execute construction and effect related actions based on clear, actionable guidelines with minimum risk. DiSSCo Prepare will raise DiSSCo’s IRL across five critical dimensions: scientific, technical, organizational, financial and data readiness.
- Deliver the DiSSCo Construction Masterplan.

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) on Euroopan luonnontieteellisten kokoelmien rakentama uusi tutkimusinfrastruktuuri. DiSSCo työskentelee Euroopan luonnontieteellisten kokoelmavarantojen yhdistämiseksi digitaalisesti. Näin DiSSCo mahdollistaa hajallaan toimivien kokoelmien yhdistämisen integroiduksi tietovarannoksi, joka tarjoaa kytkeytynyttä todistusaineistoa luonnontieteellisen tutkimuksen tueksi. DiSSCo valittiin Euroopan tutkimusinfrastruktuurien tiekartalle vuonna 2018. Sen on tarkoitus olla toimintavalmis vuodesta 2025 alkaen.