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Museum part of major project to unlock over 300 years of biodiversity data
A specimen from Amgueddfa Cymru's entymology collection being digitised
Funding has been confirmed for a research project which will see Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales work with the Natural History Museum London, the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and partners across the UK on a new project to digitise the UK’s natural science collections.
DiSSCo UK (Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK) is a £155m, 10-year national digitisation programme which will centralise natural science collections from across the UK on one portal. The programme is funded through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and delivered through AHRC in partnership with the Natural History Museum and over 100 partners across the UK. Amgueddfa Cymru has secured £1.6m for the first phase to lead DiSSco UK | West Hub, a new hub who will work together to digitise hundreds of thousands of natural science specimens across Wales, south west England and Northern Ireland.
The confirmation of the funding marks the highest grant the museum has ever received for a research project, and acknowledges the level of expertise within Amgueddfa Cymru’s research team to lead the hub.
Uniting expertise across three nations, the DiSSco UK | West Hub brings together Amgueddfa Cymru as Lead Hub, in collaboration with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and Museum Development South West, National Museums NI and the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
Over an 18-month programme starting in September 2026, the partners will digitally capture around 500,000 botany and entomology specimens using hi-res multi camera imaging. These will include rare plant specimens from herbarium collections as well as insects, of which Amgueddfa Cymru has one of the largest collections in the UK.
The newly digitised data will make natural science collections openly accessible to researchers worldwide, supporting global research into biodiversity loss and climate resilience. Centralising this scientific data will make it far easier for scientists to access globally, rather than being held by individual museums.
Jenny Geroni, Head of Research at Amgueddfa Cymru and Project Lead for DiSSCo UK West said:
‘Our success in securing the £1.6m funding for this first phase follows a rigorous application process, and we’re incredibly proud to now be leading the DiSSco UK | West Hub. It’s a true testament to the hard work of our researchers at Amgueddfa Cymru and the expertise of our curatorial and conservation teams.‘Working with our consortia partners, we will aim to deliver a sustainable, inclusive model for natural science digitisation that strengthens the UK’s contribution to international conservation efforts.’
‘Our success in securing the £1.6m funding for this first phase follows a rigorous application process, and we’re incredibly proud to now be leading the DiSSco UK | West Hub. It’s a true testament to the hard work of our researchers at Amgueddfa Cymru and the expertise of our curatorial and conservation teams.
‘Working with our consortia partners, we will aim to deliver a sustainable, inclusive model for natural science digitisation that strengthens the UK’s contribution to international conservation efforts.’
AHRC Executive Chair Professor Christopher Smith said:
‘For hundreds of years the UK has gathered and grown one of the world’s most comprehensive and diverse collections of scientific material in museums across the UK. It has been a long-held ambition to bring this collection together – and now this dream can come true. ‘Over ten years, DiSSCo UK will deliver progress that would otherwise have taken over a century, including the creation of millions of newly digitised records and a network of around 100 collections from national museums and gardens, and universities to local collections that would never have had such access without it. And the outcomes of this £155m investment will offer exciting new opportunities for science as well as society. ‘AHRC is proud to have led UKRI’s largest ever investment in the GLAM sector, yet another contribution to our leadership of the creative and cultural economy.’
‘For hundreds of years the UK has gathered and grown one of the world’s most comprehensive and diverse collections of scientific material in museums across the UK. It has been a long-held ambition to bring this collection together – and now this dream can come true.
‘Over ten years, DiSSCo UK will deliver progress that would otherwise have taken over a century, including the creation of millions of newly digitised records and a network of around 100 collections from national museums and gardens, and universities to local collections that would never have had such access without it. And the outcomes of this £155m investment will offer exciting new opportunities for science as well as society.
‘AHRC is proud to have led UKRI’s largest ever investment in the GLAM sector, yet another contribution to our leadership of the creative and cultural economy.’
The work to begin the digitisation will take place from September 2026, and roles and training opportunities will now be recruited to support the programme.
More information on Amgueddfa Cymru’s research work is available at museum.wales
ENDS
For further information and images please contact:
Rachel Bowyer
Communications Lead, Museum Wales
029 2057 3614
rachel.bowyer@museumwales.ac.uk
communications@museumwales.ac.uk
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DiSSCo UK (Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK) is a £155 million, 10-year national digitisation programme. It is delivered through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in partnership with the Natural History Museum and over 100 partners across the UK.
UK natural science collections hold more than 140 million items spanning an incredible 4.6-billion-year history - researchers use these collections to find solutions to global problems like biodiversity loss and food security.
DiSSCo UK will become a one-stop, dynamic, openly available and easy-to-use online science infrastructure, integrating 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.
Find out more and explore what’s already been digitised on the DiSSCo UK website
Additional Quotes
Kathryn Thomson, Chief Executive of National Museums NI, said:
"National Museums NI is proud to be part of the DiSSco UK | West Hub, working with Amgueddfa Cymru and partners across the UK to make natural science collections more accessible and impactful.
“By digitising specimens and making them openly available to researchers worldwide, this project will unlock new opportunities for research, learning and discovery, while strengthening our collective understanding of the natural world.
“Collaboration is central to its success, and the initiative aligns strongly with our commitment to delivering positive environmental impact. It will help ensure our collections remain a valuable resource in addressing challenges such as biodiversity loss and environmental change for generations to come."
Dr Kevin McGinn, Curator of the Seed Bank and Herbarium at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, said:
“We’re very excited to be a partner in the new DiSSCo UK West initiative. The Botanic Garden’s herbarium holds more than 30,000 plant specimens, and while we have made great progress in curating and digitising the collection, our journey is far from complete. The herbarium is currently only 17% fully digitised, and no specimens are yet available through global databases. This project comes at exactly the right time, enabling us to continue working with a fantastic group of dedicated volunteers to complete the digitisation of our collection.
"We will also visit regional herbarium collections across Wales to scope opportunities for supporting their digitisation through future collaboration."
Linda Coode, Head of Collections and Archives at Bristol Museums, said:"We are proud to be part of DiSSCo UK West. It is incredibly exciting to be digitising our nationally significant biodiversity data from our natural sciences collections so that it can be unlocked for use by researchers across the world.
“This is a great opportunity for us to work in collaboration with Museum Development South West and key museum partners across the South West to develop new ways of working and develop skills to help more museums to participate in similar projects.
“Working together through DiSSCo UK West across Wales, Northern Ireland and South West England helps ensure our natural science collections make an even bigger contribution to research, public engagement, nature conservation and climate resilience.”
