Supporting policy making by opening scientific collections from the Natural History domain

Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW) is working with the  Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and partners in the Skills4EOSC project [*]. Our goal is to promote the spirit of Open Science, Open Collections and the FAIR principles to professionals who manage scientific collections, and Natural History collections in particular.The project includes several tasks that involve collaboration on the following activities : 

1. Case studies on how open natural science collections can support policy goals related to biodiversity, pollution, and climate change, especially at the European level. The case studies will be shared through a policy brief and a round table for parliamentarians and policy administration in Brussels and will be used in the project’s training materials for policymakers.
2. ‘Minimum Viable Skillset’ (MVS) for Digital Collections Managers. Since digital transformation of museum collections also requires different ways of working and new skills, we are developing a job profile based on this MVS, and piloting training materials to help people acquire the essential skills to make collections more open for research.  The MVS are one of the key outputs of the project and cover a variety of career profiles related to open science, such as researchers, policy-makers, knowledge brokers, and data stewards. To assist trainers of people in these roles,  the project is developing learning paths and training resources based on the MVS.
3. We are establishing a professional network of data curators in museums and collections, both nationally and internationally to facilitate the exchange of best practices around open science and digital museum collections. 
   At EBR III, we are looking forward to engaging with other initiatives working towards open scientific collections and discovering cases of scientific collections supporting biodiversity policy goals.  If you work with natural history collections - and this has informed policy on biodiversity, climate change, or pollution - Skills4EOSC would love to share your story.  If any aspect of our work aligns with your interests let’s talk! Speak to us here or please get in touch! [contact form and QR code to be added]

*Skills4EOSC ‘Skills for the European Open Science commons: creating a training ecosystem for Open and FAIR science’ is funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe programme (GA 101058527). Coordinated by Consortium GARR and supported by 44 partners in 18 European countries, Skills4EOSC will set up a pan-European network of competence centres to speed up the training of European researchers and harmonise the training of new professional figures for scientific data management.