Distributed System of Scientific Collections
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Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK (DiSSCo UK) is a major national digitisation initiative. It aims to show the full potential of the UK’s natural science collections by making them digitally open and accessible.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland will jointly lead the creation of a network across Scotland. With our partners, in the first phase of the programme we aim to create approximately 700,000 digital records of specimens held in Scotland’s natural science collections.
About the project
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DiSSCo UK is a 10-year national programme to digitise and connect the UK's natural science collections. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and delivered in partnership with the Natural History Museum.
Between 2026 and 2028, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland will establish a national hub for the digitisation of natural science collections throughout Scotland. This will support the digital transformation of centuries of collecting endeavours. The project builds on our digitisation expertise and partnerships and will make thousands of collection records accessible.
Capacity building
Together, UK natural science collections hold more than 140 million items spanning an incredible 4.6-billion-year history. Collectively these specimens form a remarkable resource for researchers to use as they search for solutions to critical global problems like biodiversity loss and food security.
By creating an openly available and easy-to-use online science infrastructure, DiSSCo UK will integrate digital access to UK natural science collections. Through digitisation, coordination, innovation and community building, we will create a unique infrastructure that builds UK digital capacity and maximises the impact of natural science data.
A hub for Scotland
A national digitisation hub for Scotland will build digitisation capacity in the national collections. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh holds 3 million specimens, while National Museums Scotland holds 10 million specimens. Together with 50 other natural science collections in Scotland, these collections contain valuable evidence of more than 300 years of environmental change in the UK.
DiSSCo UK
Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK (DiSSCo UK)
September 2026 until March 2028
To harness the full potential of the UK’s natural science collections by making them physically and digitally open, accessible, and usable for all forms of research and innovation.
Digitise the preserved collections at RBGE, support international digital collections infrastructure, and support scientific and cultural research through enhanced access to our digital collections.
- Glasgow Life
- The Hunterian (University of Glasgow)
- The James Hutton Institute
- The Shetland Amenity Trust
- Professor Olwen Grace (Principle Investigator), Deputy Director of Science (Collections) and Curator of the Herbarium
- Elspeth Haston, Deputy Herbarium Curator
- Robyn Drinkwater, Digital Curator