DiSSCo UK is a major digitisation project. It aims to show the full potential of the UK’s natural science collections by making them digitally open and accessible. This project is co-led by National Museums Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh and will create over 700,000 digital records of specimens held in Scotland’s natural science collections.

About the project

DiSSCo UK is a 10-year national programme to digitise and connect the UK's natural science collections. It is funded through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund and delivered by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council in partnership with the Natural History Museum.

Between 2026 and 2028, National Museums Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh will establish a national hub for the digitisation of natural science collections throughout Scotland. This will support the digital transformation of centuries of collecting endeavours. The project builds on our digitisation expertise and partnerships and will make thousands of collection records accessible.

Capacity building

Together, UK natural science collections hold more than 140 million items spanning an incredible 4.6-billion-year history. Collectively these specimens form a remarkable resource for researchers to use as they search for solutions to critical global problems like biodiversity loss and food security.

By creating an openly available and easy-to-use online science infrastructure, DiSSCo UK will integrate 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.

A hub for Scotland

A national digitisation hub for Scotland will build digitisation capacity in the national collections. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh holds 3 million specimens, while National Museums Scotland holds 10 million specimens. Together with 50 other natural science collections in Scotland, these collections contain valuable evidence of more than 200 years of environmental change in the UK.

Watch this video to find out more about the project:

Project title
Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK (DiSSCo UK)
Phase duration
September 2026 until March 2028.
Project theme
To harness the full potential of the UK’s natural science collections by making them physically and digitally open, accessible, and usable for all forms of research and innovation.
Strategic aims
We will be well advanced on the path to net zero carbon and a respected resource for understanding climate and biodiversity challenges. The unique potential of our collections, expertise and programmes will be shared and valued internationally.