The digitalization of a large portion of the Greek Natural History Collections of universities and other scientific institutions in the country, as well as the establishment of a digital hub to host them, is proceeding in Greece, with the collaboration of eight different institutions from across Greece and coordinated by the University of Crete. These are the Natural History Museum of Crete of the University of Crete, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Patras, the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Goulandris Natural History Museum, the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, the Natural History Museum of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos and the University of the Aegean.

It is a particularly important project because, in addition to being part of the national cultural heritage, the Greek Natural History Collections provide invaluable national infrastructure for the study and assessment of biodiversity, as well as the basis for monitoring the effects of environmental change over time.

Upon completion of the project, the digitised natural history collections of the aforementioned institutions will be made available to a wide range of users, serving as the foundation for delivering the knowledge required to address major environmental and societal challenges.

The University of Crete is involved in the project through the Natural History Museum of Crete (NHMC), which possesses the most extensive natural history collections in Greece, with over 3 million specimens from the Eastern Mediterranean region, with a focus on Greece and the Aegean. NHMC is Greece’s sole natural history museum that is an active member of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), https://cetaf.org/, and has been designated as the national representative in the European DiSSCo consortium. The digitalization of the NHMC collections marks a new era for the University of Crete, as it contributes to world knowledge as a partner of Europe’s important collections.