Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT
Handbook on natural history collections management – A collaborative Swiss perspective
Swiss natural history museums, botanical gardens, universities and other institutions for higher education collectively maintain collections with over 60 million specimens of animals, fungi, plants, rocks and fossils. To speed up, harmonise and better coordinate their digitisation, the SwissCollNet initiative was established by the Swiss Academy of Sciences and the Swiss collection-holding institutions.
This handbook is one of SwissCollNet’s first achievment to advance the exchange of knowledge on object and data management among Swiss collections. It contains instructions to modernise natural history collections of preserved biological materials and geological samples developed by experts and collections managers from across Swiss collection-holding institutions.
Frick H, Greeff M (2021) Handbook on natural history collections management – A collaborative Swiss perspective. Swiss Academies Communications 16 (2).
Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+
Lighthouse Programmes in Sustainability Research and Innovation
Wuelser G, Edwards P (2025)
Lighthouse Programmes in Sustainability Research and Innovation
Swiss Academies Reports 20 (4)Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+
Ethical guidelines for animal experiments
The Swiss Animal Welfare Act permits the use of animals for certain scientific purposes; at the same time, however, it requires that the dignity of animals be respected and their welfare protected. For researchers, reconciling these various societal interests can be challenging. The ethical guidelines for animal experiments (2025) are designed to clarify the margin of discretion left by the legislation and to encourage researchers to reflect on the handling of animals in their experiments. The decisive factors for updating the previous version from 2005 were new scientific knowledge and research methods on the one hand, as well as changes in the legal framework on the other.
