DiSSCo-ITINERIS is part of the Next Generation EU (PNRR) project ITINERIS ("Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System", project no. IR0000032 - itineris.cnr.it), aimed at coordinating and integrating the Italian nodes of 22 European Research Infrastructures (RI).
ITINERIS will build the Italian Hub of Research Infrastructures in the environmental scientific domain for the observation and study of environmental processes in the atmosphere, marine domain, terrestrial biosphere, and geosphere, providing access to data and services and supporting the Country to address current and expected environmental challenges.
In the frame of this project, the DiSSCo-ITINERIS website hosts the results of the three activities taking part in the construction of the Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure DiSSCo-ERIC (Distributed System of Scientific Collections - www.dissco.eu).
(Photo: Maria Luisa Briolotti, CNR-IRSA, VB, Italy)
(Courtesy: DiSSCo-ERIC, www.dissco.eu)
At this stage, the evidence is unequivocal for anyone to see. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. The oceans are changing rapidly, becoming warmer, more acidic and less oxygenated. How life responds to these changes is a big unknown.
We only know a fraction of the species that inhabit the Earth. This means that thousands of them could be going extinct without us even noticing them.
Digital technologies and new forms of data derived from DNA have significantly enhanced the quantity and quality of research data. But despite these advances, our understanding of the natural world remains limited. Providing a list of species for a single habitat is akin to listing the characters of a comedy without a plot. We need to understand their relationships, how they function, and how they react to human pressure. We need a new approach, a new system that will bring together data, AI and automation and people to ge the best out of all the data.
DiSSCo represents one of the Europe's best chances to bring about such a new system for natural science collections (NSC). DiSSCo is leading the way to bring together hundreds of NSC into a unique digital infrastructure that will function as a unified digital collection for all of Europe.
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).
By mobilising, harmonising and providing Natural Science Collections data, DiSSCo fills a significant gap in the value chain of European RIs because it provides a fundamental basis of knowledge at the scale and precision required to enable research for tackling grand societal challenges.
As a final results, DiSSSCo is expected to make available in 1 European collection all the taxonomic, genomic, ecological, morphological, biochemical and literature information on 1,5 billion specimens, involving 5,000 scientists working in 200+ institutions from 23 countries.
More information: www.dissco.eu.
(Photo: Wilma Sabetta, CNR-IBBR, Bari, Italy)