Presentation
Récolnat: Advancing Natural History Research through a National Network of Naturalist Collections
The national network of naturalist collections (Récolnat) is a research infrastructure (IR) whose scope concerns all natural history collections and their enhancement through research. Récolnat has been on the infrastructure roadmap of the Ministry of Research (MESR) since 2016. At the heart of its missions is the production and provision of a corpus of data for the study of geo- and current and past biodiversity.
Empowering Research with e-Récolnat: A Vast Digital Repository and Collaborative Platform for Naturalist Collections
Initiated in 2013 through the e-Récolnat future investment program (ANR-11-INBS-0004), the infrastructure offers a portal giving access to nearly 11 million images and their ancillary data from more than 80 institutions in France (mainland and overseas). This corpus of data is also enriched by the participatory science program Les Herbonautes, whose community – with more than 4,000 contributors – compiles data sets for selected research work. The infrastructure also provides tools for researchers working on digital duplicates of collections. Like a virtual work bench, the Annotate-On tool allows you to perform measurements and annotations of different characters and morphometric parameters on digital images, and import them into a structured table.
Récolnat: Building a Robust Network of Naturalist Collections in France and Beyond
Since 2020, the national network of naturalist collections has consolidated its foundation and scope with the ambition of structuring natural history communities in France. In the form of a scientific interest group (GIS), Récolnat's ambition is to constitute a network of scientific excellence by bringing together professionals and harmonizing practices related to naturalist collections. Museums, universities and research institutions work together to offer increased and privileged access to naturalist collections and their data. In this sense, Récolnat is part of the open data policy and the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). Led by the National Museum of Natural History, Récolnat is also the French hub of the European mirror infrastructure DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections).
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Récolnat 2023