BCoN Briefs Interagency Committee

On January 16, 2020, the Biodiversity Collections Network - a project led by the American Institute of Biological Sciences in partnership with the Natural Science Collections Alliance and Society for Preservation of Natural History Collections - provided members of the federal Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections (IWGSC) with information about its recent report, Extending U.S. Biodiversity Collections to Promote Research and Education (https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz140). In addition, highlights from the December 2019 AIBS Council Meeting, Beyond Specimens, were also shared with the panel. The IWGSC was established by the White House National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) by a charter approved in June 2006. The group currently operates as a subcommittee under the Committee on Science and Technology Enterprise, established in July 2018. The IWGSC is co-chaired by U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Smithsonian and originally reported to the NSTC Committee on Science. IWGSC’s mission was to assess the status and needs of the scientific collections owned, managed, and/or supported by the U.S. Federal Government, and to recommend ways to improve their management, effectiveness, and impact. The IWGSC is currently working on a new report that is expected to help guide future priorities for scientific collections held by the U.S. government.      
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news