OSIRIS – Collecting for Our future

Open Science, Information, and Research Infrastructure

OSIRIS is a consortium and collaboration project involving (currently) 17 host and additional partner institutions, working together to establish the first global foundation for an integrated, interdisciplinary infrastructure for collections, information, and research, the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) is one of them.

In Germany, over 160 million objects are housed in natural and cultural history research collections, the scientific and societal potential of which remains largely untapped. These collections, as repositories of nature, culture, and technology, are invaluable for advancing our understanding of the relationships and interactions between humans and the environment, as well as the development of socio-ecological systems on a global scale. They are fundamental to both basic and applied research and crucial for education and training within Germany. A national, integrated, and interdisciplinary infrastructure for collections—and consequently for research and information—has the potential to unlock vast knowledge, action, and transformative capabilities. OSIRIS is laying the foundations for the world’s first integrated interdisciplinary infrastructure, facilitating a groundbreaking approach to these challenges.

The consortium members work together in a participatory and complementary manner to make their unique research collections in technology, natural and cultural sciences accessible. A central goal of the SNSB within the framework of OSIRIS is the linking of collections and making them publicly accessible in accordance with the FAIR principles.

More about OSIRIS: https://osiris-fis.org/