London’s Natural History Museum (NHM) has announced that it has reached a milestone in its digitisation project, having made five million specimens available online to audiences around the world. The news comes as the result of a collaborative report between NHM and Frontier Economics Ltd., looking at the economic and societal value of digitising natural history collections, has been revealed.
This found that digitisation could see a tenfold return on investment, creating benefits of more than £2 billion over three decades. The societal benefits of digitising natural history collections include advancements in food security, biodiversity conservation, medicine discovery, minerals exploration and more.
“The Natural History Museum’s collection is a real treasure trove which, if made easily accessible to scientists all over the world through digitisation, has the potential to unlock ground-breaking research in any number of areas,” says Dan Popov, an economist at Frontier Economics.
“We can’t be certain as to how this data will be used so have looked at the potential value that new research could create in just five areas, focusing on a relatively narrow set of outcomes. We find that the value at stake is extremely large, running into billions of pounds.”
“This new analysis shows that the data locked up in our collections has significant societal and economic value, but we need investment to help us release it,” adds Professor Ken Norris, head of the Life Sciences Department at NHM.
Open-source data informs key research
The five million digitised specimens, which accounts for around 6% of the collection, are available on NHM’s Data Portal. To date, this features 1.7 million insects, 500,000 fossils and 900,000 plants, along with relevant information including what they are, and where and when they were collected. This provides key data that can inform scientific research.
Since 2015, over 30 billion records have been downloaded from the Data Portal and partner platforms like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and over1500 research papers have cited data from the collection.
Helen Hardy, science digital programme manager at the Natural History Museum, says: “This is a huge landmark for us and the combined effort of many digitisers, curators, researchers, data managers and others. Sharing data from our collections can transform scientific research and help find solutions for nature and from nature.
“Our digitised collections have helped establish the baseline plant biodiversity in the Amazon, found wheat crops that are more resilient to climate change, and support research into the potential zoonotic origins of Covid-19. The research that comes from sharing our specimens has immense potential to transform our world and help both people and planet thrive.”
The NHM is on a mission to create advocates for the planet by engaging visitors with the topic of climate change. Recently, the museum took part in a series of events at COP26 in Glasgow.
Top image: NHM’s five millionth digital specimen, Stenoperla prasine © Trustees of the Natural History Museum