The Manchester Museum is running a project, funded by the British Ecological Society, that aims to help strengthen and develop UK natural sciences collections as a research-useful infrastructure. This would support nature conservation, environmental and ecological research, related policy and site/species/habitat management. It would also help inform museum sector policy and funding (e.g. preliminary results will contribute towards the UK Museums Association’s ‘Collections 2030’ project).
The work involves asking ecological/environmental researchers, site managers, policy workers environmental data/records workers, conservationists (including site and species managers, among others) to give their perceptions on which of 12 key research areas, collections either do, or could support. This is done through a survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/552RG3V
You do not need to be based in the UK to take this survey.
There is, however, a slightly different survey for people working in UK museums, including museum curators working with natural sciences/history collections, museum managers (directors, heads of collections, those making budgetary decisions relating to collections development), and those working with museum policy relating to collections and their development.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N3N8QG8
If you are unsure which of the links to use, use the first one if your work is mainly about ecological/environmental/nature conservation research, policy or management, biological records, and site/species management, and the second if your work is mainly about museum collections, museum management or policy.
Surveys should be completed by end of the year, 2018 – it doesn’t take long.
If you have questions, please contact Henry McGhie, Head of Collections and Curator of Zoology at Manchester Museum henry.mcghie@manchester.ac.uk