Taxonomy 2028 Challenge: The Australian National Biodiversity Collection

Australia currently has around 100 public biodiversity collections (based on the ALA's Collectory pages), with a combined holding of >50 million specimens covering all organismic groups, and an estimated value of >$5 billion. In aggregate, the collection comprises a megascience infrastructure for biodiversity research in Australia, our region and the world, similar in scale and value to other megascience initiatives such as the Square Kilometre Array or the Large Hadron Collider.

However, the collection is jurisdictionally very scattered. In general, each state and territory has a large or relatively large herbarium and museum collection, under a variety of jurisdictional and reporting arrangements (e.g. from semi-autonomy under an independent Board to embedded in botanic gardens or various government departments). Some universities have collections, ranging from small teaching collections to substantial holdings. There is also a long tail of smaller, special-purpose collections in universities and various government departments. 

This jurisdictional scatter has arisen for obvious historical reasons: the establishment of the major herbaria and museums was mandated or facilitated under state and territory legislation; the CSIRO collections were established under its research mandate; and the smaller collections were established by universities and government departments for specific purposes not adequately covered by the major institutions.

Importantly, funding decisions that affect our collections are made by a very wide variety of budgeting agencies (from local to state or territory to national), with very little national coordination or strategy that can buffer a given collection from the exigencies of its local funding pressures.

Further, the wide scatter of collections means that few "owners" of collections see their collection as part of a megascience infrastructure, and nor does the community as a whole.

So, here's my vision:

By 2028, all our biodiversity collections will be integrated to form the Australian National Biodiversity Collection

The main goal of the ANBC will be to change the way governments, industry and the community view our individual collections - from seeing them in isolation to seeing them as part of something much greater. For obvious reasons, each individual institution will remain under local jurisdictional control and management. However, we will market our collections as e.g. "The xxxx collection, part of the Australian National Biodiversity Collection". 

We will establish an arrangement under the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) whereby the importance of each collection as part of the whole is acknowledged, including if possible negotiated agreements on minimal required baseline funding for each collection. 

We will also establish a strategic governance structure for the ANBC as a whole, to ensure strategic planning for the aggregate as well as individual collections, rather than for individual collections alone, and to increase recognition of the strategic value of each collection and of the ANBC in aggregate, in order to increase profile and funding.

4 responses
Okay as an initiative within this initiative, I would like to see all collections databased at every museum in Australia. Can we do that Kevin?
Absolutely - that would be part of what we'd then collectively lobby for, and aim for. I think there would be a better chance of achieving this if the collection is seen as an integrated megascience resource, rather than as a bunch of single collections.
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