The Specify Collections Consortium (SCC) is excited to announce that UniMus:Natur, a consortium of major institutions in Norway, has joined at the recently introduced Visionary Member level ($100,000/year).
Background
Beginning in early 2025, the University of Oslo initiated a search for a collection management system that:
- can store migrated data with high integrity and include as many elements as possible,
- supports a wide range of relevant collection types,
- facilitates various collection management procedures and activities effectively, and
- provides access to a large and robust international network for natural history collection management.
This process was led by Senior Advisor Procurement Officer Kjell-Gunnar Thomsen and Executive Manager Gunnhild Marthinsen.
After many months of product demonstrations, price discussions, sessions with researchers and collections staff, and several negotiation meetings, the decision was made to select Specify as the preferred platform following a comprehensive evaluation.
The Specify team conducted a two-day workshop in late December 2025 in Madrid, Spain, to prepare for the migration effort, working hands-on with Gunnhild Marthinsen and Central Application Manager Eirik Rindal.
Pictured left to right: Eirik Rindal, Gunnhild Marthinsen, iñigo Granzow de la Cerda, Aimee Stewart, Grant Fitzsimmons
Work will commence later this month to convert the first data sets from their various existing systems to the Specify data model, with in-person training for Migration Technician Michal Torma, scheduled in Kansas for March.
Included in this Membership:
The UniMus:Natur consortium includes the four largest universities in Norway, University of Oslo (UiO), the University of Bergen (UiB), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim), and the Arctic University of Norway (UiT, Tromsø), and the University of Agder (UiA). Together these institutions house the country’s most extensive natural history collections, and will work with the SCC and their Migration Technician to include their collections in Specify*.*
Collections include: Algae; Mosses; Lichens; Fungi; Vascular Plants; Terrestrial and Limnic Invertebrates; Marine and Limnic Invertebrates; Mammals; Birds; Fish and Amphibia; DNA and Tissue Samples; Geology; Palaeobotany; Palaeontology; Bulk Collection; Botany Exhibition Objects; Zoology Exhibition Objects; Osteology Recent; Osteology Subfossil.
Benefits to the SCC
The collective entry of major Norwegian natural history institutions marks a significant milestone in the maturity of the Specify Collections Consortium. This commitment from a coordinated national network validates the open-source governance model and strengthens our collective voice in the global biodiversity informatics landscape. By unifying these influential museums under the SCC banner, we are expanding the count of records managed by Specify by millions while also integrating a newfound wealth of curatorial and technical expertise into our community.
The financial and technical resources provided by this Visionary Membership will directly accelerate the development of Specify. The rigorous demands of these institutions (particularly regarding high-volume data migration and active concurrent user sessions) will drive engineering focused on performance optimization and scalability.
Please welcome these new institutions to our community! 