iDigBio was created as the national coordinating center in the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) grant in 2011 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the University of Florida. The NSF has supported this work with three five-year grants. The third and last grant will complete in 2026.
While much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. U.S. biodiversity collections hold an estimated 2 billion specimens, with an estimated 4 billion globally worldwide. The digitization counts increase month over month, and in October of 2024, the iDigBio portal had over 143 million records, containing close to or over 500 million specimens. Thus, much less than half of these have been digitized. We do not want to stop, and we have heard from the community that you all would like us to keep going. We’re proud to do so.
Our Sustainability Work is Ongoing
In the next two years, we will be transitioning from a solely grant-supported organization to one supported by the community, philanthropy, and corporate sponsors. In the meantime we will be running experiments and seeking community input.
Learn more: Watch the Sustainability Sessions from Digital Data 8
We Want to Hear from You
Please be in touch with your comments and ideas via our Contact Form.
