The Biodiversity Collections Network or BCoN is a strategy and advocacy group that works to promote the use and expand the accessibility of biological collections and their data, and to extend their impact as critical infrastructure for research and education for the benefit of life on earth. BCoN emerged from a five-year national initiative funded in 2014 by the National Science Foundation to support the development of a new, sustainable community of practice to ensure that all U.S. biodiversity collections are digitally available for research, education, informed decision-making, and other scholarly endeavors.
Our Current Work
BCoN promotes the development of an Extended Specimen Network as a unifying goal for biological collections over the next decade. Our most recent effort was the BIOFAIR Data Network project. In collaboration with the American Institute of Biological Sciences and with support from the National Science Foundation (DBI Award No. 2303588), in 2024-2025 BCoN organized a series of virtual discussions and a workshop with a wide range of stakeholders to initiate a collaborative and accessible partnership towards an integrative and expanded data network. Discussions built on and bridged the Extended Specimen Network vision with other existing conceptual frameworks for data integration and application. This project led to a roadmap to connect siloed biological and environmental data communities towards an integrated, open, findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable data network. Join our mailing list to stay informed about our activities.
We invite all stakeholders to join BCoN in building a broader community vision for the future of biological collections.