NatSCA, the Natural Sciences Collections Association, is a membership organisation that promotes the interests of natural science collections and the staff that work with them. As a registered charity ( no. 1098156, registered in England & Wales), we achieve our charitable mission of education in the broadest sense in two ways: through delivering public exhibitions, events and programmes based on the collections we care for, and through direct professional education.

Our aims include advancing best practice within the sector, providing training, acting as an advocate and working with relevant governing bodies. Many millions of natural science (botany, geology and zoology) specimens exist in various institutions across the UK. Curators, collection managers, conservators, education and access staff, researchers and administrators are all involved in the care and use of collections and NatSCA warmly welcomes a wide-ranging membership. We encourage members to take an active role in the group activities, contributing their knowledge and expertise. NatSCA is a means of communicating information on collections management and use, thus providing a professional support network to share skills, resources and knowledge and NatSCA is recognised as the Specialist Subject Network (SSN) for the natural sciences.

Our Activities
Through the NatSCA website, regular Newsletters, email and fact sheets we publish research articles and case studies, review books, advertise and report on conferences and seminars, as well as disseminating news, including job opportunities, relevant to natural science collections. Covering curatorial, conservation, interpretation and learning practices, NatSCA organises and promotes a range of workshops, seminars and courses for the exchange of information, skills acquisition, professional practice and the establishment of standards and principles. These take place nationwide. We organise an annual conference at the time of the AGM - programmed to have wide appeal across the sector and hosted by a different institution each year. To promote professional standards, we represent natural sciences conservation for the Institute of Conservation, and support the conservation accreditation scheme and natural science curation on the AMA. We produce guidelines for both managers and governing bodies on the value and potential use for collections.

Our activities support staff working with all kinds of collections, large and small – national, local authority, University and independent.

Advocacy for Natural Science Collections
We raise the profile for natural science collections by communicating their relevance and importance to key stakeholders, decision-makers and a wider audience. We respond to local and national policy documents, working with the Museums Association and Government. We campaign for collections at risk.