The fourth iteration of the SYNTHESYS projects is set to start on February 1st 2019, this time with CETAF as a partner. One key component of the projects was the provision of transnational access to natural history collections. This has not changed with the new project, SYNTHESYS+. Along with the start of the project the first call for physical access will be launched as well on 1 February 2019.

The ICEDIG project seeks for novel ways to speed up digitisation. Pinned insects are a particular challenge, as they are essentially 3-dimensional objects, considering the fact that also their associated labels need to be digitised. The project has scoped six experiments that could possibly lead to innovations in speeding up insect digitization. These are described in the below document MS11. The project now seeks subcontractors to build prototypes of these and other potential approaches.

The 2019 open digital science week on biological and geological diversity, biodiversity_next, is calling for symposia, workshops & events. 

ICEDIG promotes innovation and consolidation in digitisation of Natural History Collections by making its project results openly available for all interested readers. We are fully committed to open access sharing of science results

On Tuesday 11 September ESFRI officially introduced DiSSCo on the 2018 European roadmap as a priority Research Infrastructure during the Launch Ceremony at the Aula der Wissenschaften in Vienna. This is a huge milestone for European natural science Collections as the ESFRI Roadmap identifies new Research Infrastructures (RI) of pan-European interest corresponding to the long term needs of the European research communities.