2026-10-27 –, Naturalis 02
Do you ever feel like your research data is drifting further away from the physical objects that inspired it? Keeping knowledge connected to baseline data from specimens and samples is a massive hurdle, but it is exactly what you will learn to master in this session.
You will explore how the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) uses PIDs in the form of FAIR Digital Object compliant DOIs to create "Digital Twins" for billions of biological and geological specimens. We’ll dive straight into how you can confront the barriers of technical debt and institutional silos. You will gain a clear understanding of how FAIR Digital Objects turn static records into living, linked data and discover practical strategies to ensure PID infrastructure remains sustainable for the long haul.
Don't let your data become a dead end - come find out how to keep the world’s scientific heritage permanently connected.
Do you struggle to keep your research data connected to the physical objects from which it was derived? Are you finding it difficult to move beyond "static" records toward truly sustainable, interlinked data?
In this session, you will discover how the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is tackling the massive challenge of connecting 1.5 billion biological and geological specimens across Europe. You will hear about the shift from fragmented local databases to a unified digital infrastructure where every specimen has a "digital twin". We will dive into the real-world hurdles of PID adoption, like technical debt and institutional buy-in, and show you how we are building a system that doesn’t just store data but keeps it alive and connected for decades while maintaining full provenance.
You will gain direct insight into our implementation of FDO-compliant PIDs. Specifically, you will learn how we utilize Handles and DOIs for high-performance resolution, machine actionability and citable, scholarly discovery. We will explain how we deal with versioning and keeping provenance. We will also demystify how we use a GUPRI Level (Globally Unique, Persistent, Resolvable Identifier) standardized vocabulary to describe to what extent external identifiers included in the metadata are a persistent identifier.
By the end of this talk, you will:
- Understand the advantages of FDO-compliant DOIs : Learn how making use of advanced capacities of the Handle infrastructure aids open data, AI readiness and how it was used to provide versioning and multiple redirects.
- Identify practical solutions for sustainability: Gain insights into how we address the financial and technical barriers that often stop long-term PID initiatives in their tracks.
- See the power of "Connected Knowledge": Discover how linking identifiers across disciplines, from genomics to climate science, unlocks new research possibilities that were previously impossible.
Whether you are a software engineer, a data architect, a researcher or just someone curious about how we make billions of tiny things persistently findable and machine actionable on the web, you'll walk away with a roadmap for overcoming the barriers to persistent, sustainable knowledge.
