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The proposal will focus on 4 Work Packages related to several aspects of the alignment with the tasks to be developed or continued during the transition phase of DiSSCo:
The consortium will elaborate a plan defining how the DiSSCo ERIC will operate taking into account the specificities of the Belgian institutional organisation and will be integrated into the Belgian funding landscape, the Belgian Research and Innovation roadmap outlined by BELSPO. This process will be complemented by the demonstration of the added value of DiSSCo ERIC for the Belgian natural bio and geo sciences & Environmental research and will propose models of governance of DiSSCo in Belgium.
Three aspects will be addressed:
1. the governance of DiSSCo in Belgium,
2. Its cost model, and
3. the possible synergies at institutional, federal, national and at international/EU level.
The consortium will complement the specialization tool developed during DiSSCo Prepare with more and updated data from the partners (at Belgian and European level) and analyze all the specialization data gathered in the tool to define a clear specialization strategy for the DiSSCo infrastructure.
The associated research and development will focus on:
1. the analysis of data related to the collections, the research fields, the scientific infrastructures and /instruments, the exhibitions, and the trainings.
2. the integration of these data in dedicated visualization and decision tools.
RBINS will collaborate with the Belgian institutions relevant for DiSSCo (with or without signed MoU) to validate the updated version of the Specialization tool.
The technologies used in the DiSSCo infrastructure must be kept up to date. Standards and techniques are constantly evolving and the tools we develop for collection management and referencing must be adapted. The research and development will focus on:
1. Persistent identifiers for the collections: Both CETAF collections dashboard and DiSSCo Prepare specialization plan propose a hierarchy of the main DiSSCo collections and sub-collections. This hierarchy will be linked to the GrSciColl inventory and its Collection identification system. Thanks to the diversity of the Belgian collections it will be possible to develop and test a standardized identification of the collections.
2. Collection descriptors and the use of the Latimer Core: The CETAF and RBINS developed a tool for the description of the collection. A new standard for the description was recently proposed by TDWG. The goal of this task is to align the Collection registry with the Latimer Core.
3. Standardization of multimedia files: The digitization of the collection and specimens produce many different file formats. DiSSco recommends a standardized protocol only for 2D images (IIIF). The goal of this task is to evaluate and propose a way of standardization for most of the digitized files produced by the digitization programs.
The consortium will establish a framework for strengthening the partnership and the collaboration between the Belgian DiSSCo partners for the description of the collections and the standardization of the multimedia datasets. Dedicated training will be provided on the standardization of the data and metadata of natural history collections description using the Latimer Core, on High-Resolution Digitization tools and how to compare/export data with/to the DiSSCo ecosystem, and on the DARWiN Collection Management System (jointly developed by RBINS and MRAC).
Finally, some Citizen Science case studies will be developed in collaboration with the CANAHIST project using the Central Africa collections which are represented in the Belgian DiSSCo partners and in private collections. For this, the “DoeDat” crowdsourcing platform developed by Meise BG and DiSSCo-Flanders will be used (https://www.doedat.be/).
Next to these scientific and technical work packages, three work packages will ensure that the project reach its objectives, in conformity with the requirements of the call:
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