Distributed System of Scientific Collections
1,5 billion specimens. 5,000 scientists. 300+ institutions. 23 countries
… in 1 European collection.
DiSSCo
A world-class Research Infrastructure
The Distributed System of Scientific Collections is a new world-class Research Infrastructure (RI) for Natural Science Collections. The DiSSCo RI aims to create a new business model for one European collection that digitally unifies all European natural science assets, sharing common access, curation, policies and practices across countries while ensuring that all the data complies with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data).
DiSSCo’s flagship service: DiSSCover
One of the beauties of DiSSCo’s Transitional Phase has been the consolidation of one of the most game-changing services of the future RI: DiSSCover, DiSSCo’s unified curation and annotation system for Digital Specimens. Find out more here.
The European Loans and Visits System (for natural history collections) unveiled!
1st Jul. 2025Last June 26th, our colleagues from the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, in...
Stay up to date!
The European Loans and Visits System (for natural history collections) unveiled!
1st Jul. 2025Last June 26th, our colleagues from the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, in...
Get to know DiSSCo’s new service: SpLAT!
4th Jun. 2025In this new video, our colleague, Soulaine Theocharides, from the Naturalis...
DiSSCo Transition Machine Annotation Service Hackathon!
(Updated) 1st Feb. 2025BRIEF REPORT ON THE DISSCO MACHINE ANNOTATION SERVICES HACKATHON. From 24...
DiSSCo and other European Research Infrastructures
DiSSCo bridges a fundamental gap in the landscape of European RIs. Find out more here.
DiSSCo services
DiSSCo is all about services. It will create a unique access point for integrated data analysis and interpretation through a wide array of digital services provided by its community.
Understanding DiSSCo
DiSSCo-linked projects (2018-23)
Building a Research Infrastructure is a very complex task. For this reason, since its inception n 2018, DiSSCo has relied on other partner organizations who, through their own projects, have addressed specific parts of the Research Infrastructure.
DiSSCo Prepare
DiSSCo officially launched its preparatory phase in February 2020 with DiSSCo Prepare, the primary vehicle through which DiSSCo will reach the overall readiness necessary for its construction and eventual operation.
Understanding DiSSCo
The participating countries
DiSSCo is all over Europe: 23 countries and counting!
Understanding DiSSCo
DiSSCo is a RI in progress
DiSSCo Prepare has allowed the DiSSCo community achieve an optimum Implementation Readiness Level (IRL) in the technical, data, financial, scientific and organisational dimensions of the future Research Infrastructure. DiSSCo Transition served as a time for consolidating DiSSCo’s maturity in all these areas, prior to embark on the final Construction Phase of the Research Infrastructure, which will start as soon as DiSSCo achieve its status of ERIC (expected by the end of 2025).
Changes in DiSSCo’s governance and funding will be running parallel with its progressive completion of these development phases.
Understanding DiSSCo
A young but mature initiative
DiSSCo RI is a young initiative but it builds on the expertise, maturity and cohesiveness of the scientific community where it took shape: CETAF the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities, in operation since 1996. Representing more than 80% of the world’s described species, CETAF’s collections lie at the core of DiSSCo’s data basis providing millions of specimens of animals, plants, fungi, rocks and genetic resources.
DiSSCo LABS
An open door to DiSSCo’s Technical developments