In 2020 an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released its report
Biological Collections: Ensuring Critical Research and Education for the 21st Century. Recommendation 8-1 of the report included establishment of a national Action Center for biological collections,
which was codified into law by the U.S. Congress as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. In 2023 a series of webinars and national workshops was convened to envision the action center. The recommendations of these workshops are itemized in the attached
white paper Envisioning a Natural History Collections Action Center. A list of the participants in these workshops is included as the final pages of the white paper. Here we ask you to register your support of the findings presented. Although this was
a U.S. report, we welcome all collections professionals to register your support. The results of this survey as well as the white paper will be provided to the U.S. National Science Foundation.
On behalf of the organizers, many thanks!
Gil
Gil Nelson PhD, Director
Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio)
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
gnelson@floridamuseum.ufl.edu