OSIRIS is a consortium and a cooperation project of (currently) 17 supporting and other partner institutions to create the basis for an integrated inter- and transdisciplinary collection, information and research infrastructure for the first time worldwide.
In Germany, there are over 160 million objects in natural and cultural history research collections whose scientific and social potential is nowhere near exhausted. As knowledge repositories of nature, culture and technology, they are of inestimable importance for our understanding of the connections and interactions between humans and the environment as well as the development of socio-ecological systems on a global level: they are simply essential for basic and applied research and for education and training in Germany. A national, integrated, interdisciplinary collection and thus also research and information infrastructure can unleash an enormous potential for knowledge, action and thus transformation. With OSIRIS, the foundations for an integrated inter- and transdisciplinary infrastructure are being laid for the first time worldwide.
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is involved in the OSIRIS project in a variety of ways. In addition to active participation in the core group, the MfN team was involved in the preparatory phase in the fields of action “Collection development and digitization”, “Knowledge and synthesis programs” and “Technology development and platform development” and also strengthened the idea of inter- and transdisciplinary research laboratories with its interdisciplinary approach.
In addition to the Future of Collection research area, the Society and Nature research area also participated in working groups as part of the proposal design process.