1. Digital: The digital revolution is transforming how science is done, how information is shared and how people engage with the natural world and the process of scientific discovery. We embrace these changes to reinvent how we make our collection and expertise available to scientific and general audiences worldwide: • Big, open data: Deliver a programme of large-scale digitisation to make our collection available to everyone • Global virtual communities: Build online communities and our NHM membership scheme around our three big narratives and issue an engaging, topical stream of information, news and commentary • Technology innovation: Create platforms to enhance the experience of our visitors prior to, during and after their visit, develop a virtual forum that complements what we offer members and other groups and expand our commercial revenue streams
2. Citizen Science: A longstanding appreciation of the natural world provides an extraordinary starting point to engage audiences with contemporary science. We want to use regional networks to increase Britain’s capacity in scientific, learning and curatorial disciplines. We will raise the visibility and impact of our activities across Britain, including at our site at Tring, by developing collaborative projects: • UK biodiversity and citizen science: Create tools to monitor UK biodiversity, and become a centre for developing UK activities that engage audiences with the natural world through public participation in citizen science and touring exhibitions • Learning outreach: Lead a programme working with national and regional organisations to enhance science learning in schools and beyond • Opening up the nation’s collections: Forge a collaborative network of natural history collections, sharing expertise and best practice and developing shared collection use and storage facilities.
3. International societal challenges: We must act at a global level to tackle the most important scientific and societal challenges faced by the natural world and humanity. We will play a more visible leadership role to forge international partnerships and pursue large-scale scientific, public and commercial initiatives: • Partnerships and leadership: Pursue an international programme of activities and exhibitions, engaging a global audience in our three big narratives and developing new commercial opportunities to better exploit the Museum’s brand, collection and expertise • Next-generation biodiversity discovery: Lead an international consortium to develop a twenty-first-century toolkit for the discovery of biological diversity and apply this to explore hyper-diverse systems • Scientific grand challenges: Use our collection and expertise to tackle questions of fundamental relevance to science and society, including environmental change, the spread of diseases and the supply of food and scarce minerals
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