The major aim of this project is to make available and open the information about the nature collections in the Faculty of Biology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, including the following::

• to develop one standard set of metadata to register the unique value of the collections, which will be compatible with the international standards;
• to build a digital database of the nature collections housed at the Faculty of Biology (AMU);
• to build one IT system, which will be interoperable and will also allow communication with other databases, offering a possibility of developing applications which can be used in analysis of the data from many different perspectives, including analysis of geoinformatic data, obtained from both the nature collections of the Faculty and from other sources;
• to maintain the hardware infrastructure and IT support specialists in order to sustain the proper administration and further development of the system, within the infrastructure of the Partners of the project;
• to equip the researchers involved in the project with the skills necessary for digitization of other biological collections, aimed to realize similar projects with different types of data.

Primary tasks:

• to digitize the botanical and mycological collections;
• to digitize the zoological collections;
• georeferencing – tagging the botanical, mycological and zoological collections with the right location and time information;
• to build an IT system, which will make the digitized collections publically available on the Internet.

Secondary tasks:

• to conduct the necessary training to teach how to use the database;
• to promote the project outside AMU through advertising and information campaigns.

The effects of the project:

• the digitized collections of plants, fungi and animals (54 collections), and 12 specialist and iconographic collections;
• the database of metadata will contain 2 million of unique entries, which will be the biggest digital database in Poland with information about biotic diversity of many different locations in the world;
• the whole infrastructure necessary for digitization of nature collections on a large scale;
• the IT infrastructure of the database, which will be compatible with the international standards GBIF with many applications developed to incorporate the data obtained within the project into the global network of databases with information about biotic diversity – this will give open access to the database to users all over the world.

The project AMU Nature Collections – online (AMUNATCOLL): Digitization and making available the resources of biodiversity data of the Faculty of Biology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań is co-funded by the European Union from the financial resources of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as part of the Operational Programme Digital Poland – Priority Axis: II E-administration and open government; Measure: 2.3 Digital accessibility and usability of information of the public sector; Sub-measure: 2.3.1 Digital accessibility of information of the public sector from the resources of the administration and science.

The results of the project are intended to be useful for all interested in gaining information about biotic diversity in the form of digital nature collections, and especially for professionals such as:

• scientists and doctoral students, who can use the collections for research purposes;
• members of the government administration and local authorities responsible for nature conservation and environment protection;
• officers of all state services responsible for the right movement of natural resources in accordance with the law;
• teachers and students, who can use the collections for educational purposes;
• members of non-governmental organizations and expert teams involved in nature conservation and environment protection, as well as in nature education.

The project will be realized in the period: start 1-08-2018 end 31-07-2021.

Approval of the structure of the metadata for the digitized nature collections (botanical, mycological and zoological): 30-10-2018.

Digitization of the collections:

• 30% - 31-07-2019 r.
• 70% - 31-07-2020 r.
• 100% - 01-07-2021 r.

Cataloguing of the collections – tagging the specimens with information about the location and date when they were collected:

• 30% - 10-08-2019 r.
• 70% - 10-08-2020 r.
• 100% - 11-07-2021 r.

Launching the repository of the database with the necessary converters: 21-07-2021.

Developing of the IT system to make the digital resources widely available: 31-05-2021.

• Launching a website showing the results of the project and to make the digital resources available on-line: 31-07-2020.
• Launching a mobile application for the target audience: 31-07-2020.
• End of the promotion actions of the project at specialist conferences and in nature societies focused on standardization: 31-05-2021.

Final release of the whole open-access system on-line, with all information about the nature collections of the Faculty of Biology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: 30-07-2021.

The project is realized by a consortium consisting of the following:

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań – Faculty of Biology: Lead Beneficiary

The Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Polish Academy of Sciences – Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center: Partner

There are over 60 people involved in the realization of the project. The most important decisions concerning the project are made by the members of the Management Committee. The current management issues are solved by the members of the Project Team.

The Management Committee consists of representatives of the Lead Beneficiary and the Partner.

The Faculty of Biology (AMU) is represented by the following members:

• Head of the Project – Prof. Bogdan Jackowiak
• Assistant of the Head of the Project – Magdalena Dylewska, M.Sc.
• Financing Specialist – Dorota Obiegała, M.Sc.
• Zoological Collection Coordinator – Prof. Jerzy Błoszyk
• Botanical and Mycological Collection Coordinator – Prof. Piotr Szkudlarz
• GIS and Cooperation between Partners Coordinator – Maciej Nowak, Ph.D.
• Iconography Coordinator - Prof. Justyna Wiland-Szymańska
• Digitization and Data Dissemination Specialist – Rafał Bajaczyk, M.Sc.
• Digitization and Data Dissemination Specialist – Katarzyna Jackowska, M.Sc.

Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center is represented by the following members:

• AMUNATCOLL Coordinator – Norbert Meyer, Ph.D.
• Financing Specialist of PSNC - Małgorzata Klimas, MSc
• ICT Security Coordinator - Gerard Frankowski, MSc
• IT Architecture Coordinator - Marcin Lawenda, Ph.D.
• Application Solutions Coordinator - Paweł Wolniewicz, Ph.D.

The Project Team consists of the following members:

• Head of the Project – Prof. Bogdan Jackowiak
• AMUNATCOLL Coordinator in PSNC – Norbert Meyer, Ph.D.
• Assistant of the Head of the Project – Magdalena Dylewska, M.Sc.
• Financing Specialist – Dorota Obiegała, MSc.
• HR Specialist – Maria Jaraszkiewicz, M.Sc.
• Public Procurement Specialist – Artur Muc, MSc.