STICHTING NATURALIS BIODIVERSITY CENTER

Their core work

Naturalis is the Netherlands' national natural history museum and research center, housing one of the world's largest natural science collections (over 42 million specimens). Their core work spans biodiversity research — from molecular identification of species to large-scale digitisation of natural heritage collections — and building the digital infrastructure that makes these collections accessible to the global research community. They play a central role in Europe's effort to create a Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), an ESFRI-listed research infrastructure, and conduct original research in evolutionary biology, marine ecology, and environmental change.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), Naturalis focused heavily on fundamental evolutionary biology — genome architecture in gastropods, species-level research on shell coloration and polymorphism, and individual organism-focused studies. From 2019 onward, a clear shift emerged toward large-scale digital infrastructure, FAIR data principles, and institutional-level collection digitisation (DiSSCo Prepare, SYNTHESYS PLUS, BiCIKL). Most recently (2021+), they have begun applying their biodiversity expertise to applied domains like marine bioprospecting for agriculture and earth system science, signaling a broadening from pure taxonomy toward impact-oriented research.

Naturalis is evolving from a specimen-focused research institute into Europe's key node for digital biodiversity infrastructure, while simultaneously branching into applied fields like marine bioprotectants and ecosystem services.

How they like to work

Naturalis splits evenly between leading and joining projects (7 coordinated, 8 as participant), showing they are both capable leaders and willing team players. With 189 unique partners across 36 countries, they operate as a genuine network hub — rarely repeating the same consortium. Their coordinated projects tend to be smaller MSCA fellowships (EUR 165–178K), while their largest participations are in major infrastructure projects (SYNTHESYS PLUS, MARBLES), suggesting they lead focused research but join large consortia when infrastructure scale is needed.

An exceptionally well-connected organization with 189 unique partners across 36 countries — one of the broadest collaboration networks for a mid-sized research center. Their partnerships span from pan-European infrastructure consortia to focused bilateral research fellowships, with no strong geographic bias beyond a natural European core.

What sets them apart

Naturalis occupies a rare position as both a world-class natural history collection holder and a leader in the digital infrastructure needed to make such collections useful for modern research. They are the coordinating institution behind DiSSCo, Europe's flagship ESFRI research infrastructure for scientific collections — making them an essential partner for any project that needs access to or integration with natural history specimen data. Their combination of deep taxonomic expertise, genomics capabilities, and data infrastructure experience is difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DiSSCo Prepare
  Naturalis coordinates this ESFRI preparatory phase project to build Europe's Distributed System of Scientific Collections — a continent-wide research infrastructure connecting natural history museums.
• 4D_REEF
  Their largest project (EUR 797K) combining coral reef ecology with computer vision and earth system modeling — an unusual and ambitious interdisciplinary scope for a natural history center.
• MARBLES
  Represents a strategic pivot: applying marine biodiversity expertise to disease suppression and sustainable agriculture, connecting fundamental biodiversity research to food security applications.