It is time for the many established and successful collaborations throughout the collections community to consider transforming individual scientific and institutional initiatives, specifically those inspired by the Digital Extended Specimen (DES) concept, into an integrated network of public services to address today’s biodiversity-related big questions. This symposium provides an opportunity to follow the trajectories of today’s successes by highlighting existing functionality and realistic forward scenarios, as well as discussing gaps in technological and social capacity that still form obstacles for implementation, scaling and dependable application. How far are we with linking data?

Session organisers: Jutta Buschbom, Libby Ellwood

Session recordings are available via the following link: https://youtu.be/MWrGZe-0pAc.