Thursday, August 27, 2026

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

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Overview

Convenor: Dr Nerida Wilson

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Details

Biological specimens collected from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are a critical asset to understanding Antarctica’s history and its future, and the adequate infrastructure for their reliable retention and curation has long been identified as a challenge in Australia. In this workshop, CSIRO and partners will discuss community needs for the physical, digital, and organisational infrastructure to sustainably manage and curate Antarctic and Southern Ocean biological research specimens now and into the future. It is designed to open a conversation around needs for protecting specimens and the investment they represent, expectations around access and compliance, ideas to overcome long existing challenges and the opportunities that supported collections infrastructure would present for Australian excellence in Antarctic Science. We will consider what a practical pathway to an infrastructure improvement roadmap might look like.