About Us
If you want more information about our process and progress, go to digitisation.
What is DaSSCo?
DaSSCo is a national program to digitise all of Denmark’s natural history specimens. DaSSCo, started in September 2021 as a result of a 50 million kroner grant from the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Our focus for the first 5 years is to build the infrastructure to support mass digitisation at a national scale. This includes building up our teams and expertise on a range of natural history objects. Although we won’t be fully operational until 2026, we have already started digitising as we test our developing workflows. DaSSCo is committed to the wider goals of open access and sharing our developing expertise, solutions and software.
DaSSCo is part of Pan-European research infrastructure, DiSSCo. DiSSCo involves 120 institutions in 21 countries and will create a virtual, digital research infrastructure uniting European Science Collections – thereby making approximately 1.5 billion objects accessible for everyone.
Why DaSSCo?
The unequal physical distribution of scientific collections worldwide limits access to valuable information. In this digital age DaSSCo will make digital versions of the specimens widely available for everyone, promoting a better understanding of Earth's ecosystems and addressing critical questions within global challenges such as climate change and pandemics.
In addition to their scientific value, natural history specimens are an important part of Danish national heritage. Digitisation creates archivable digital surrogates of the physical specimens. This helps reduce the need for physically handling the specimens, and the associated risk of damage. Digitisation thus helps protect this important resource for future generations.
DaSSCo's mission aligns with global goals, EU policies, and the Danish Government's vision. The consortium's combined collections hold 19 million botanical, geological, zoological specimens and historical artifacts collected over 400 years. They showcase the Earth’s natural heritage and have global significance.
Who are we?
DaSSCo is a collaboration between multiple institutions in Denmark. DaSSCo is formed by a consortium of 4 institutions. The Natural History Museum of Denmark (The University of Copenhagen) is leading the project, in close collaboration with Science Museums Aarhus University, the Natural History Museum Aarhus and the Technical University of Denmark.
The Technical University of Denmark does not hold any collections but is a technical partner focussing on 3D imaging and processing. In addition to the consortium partners, there are 6 other natural history institutions in Denmark with which we collaborate.
