Category Archives for Jobs

NatSCA Digital Digest – December 2024

Compiled by Olivia Beavers, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.

Welcome to the December edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

A monthly blog series featuring the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences, and training opportunities. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

NatSCA Conference & AGM 2025

The 2025 NatSCA conference Call for Papers is open! The deadline to submit is 5pm GMT Friday 17th January. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to the committee with questions. (conference@natsca.org) We look forward to reading your submissions!  

Making a Difference: Showing the Positive Impact of Natural History Collections

The Annual Conference & AGM of the Natural Sciences Collections Association will be held on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th May 2025 at The University of Manchester, Manchester Museum.

Natural history collections are involved in a huge range of work that has enormous positive impacts on people and the planet – this is a conference to share these stories. The #NatSCA2025 conference invites proposals for presentations looking at impact, how our work is making a difference, how we measure it, how we show success, and how we advocate for collections.

We seek ideas from the natural history collections community, educators, collaborators, and beyond. We are interested in practical lessons, unique solutions, new collaborations, and to show what has and hasn’t worked. We are particularly looking for presentations that share the differences museums are making in:

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Thoughts on Working with Natural Sciences Collections (and hoping to continue) in the United Kingdom as an Emerging Conservator.

Written by Anais Ellis, Project Conservator, Nature + Love at the Horniman Museum and Gardens.

Around a year ago I concluded three years of formal training to become a conservator. At the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL) the training is taught in two sequential parts.  First, the MA, Principles of Conservation, grounds an understanding of conservation practice within ethical frameworks and principles. Following this, the MSc, Conservation of Archaeology and Museums, includes a year of developing remedial conservation skills in a lab and a 9-month placement in a museum or adjacent environment. The formative moment during this placement was my first experience working with natural sciences collections. There were fossils to clean, fluid specimens to top-up, and a taxidermy ringed seal with several claws missing that the curator asked to be reconstructed. Now, a year later, having finished studying and having worked consistently with natural sciences collections in the United Kingdom (UK) it feels like a good moment to reflect on these experiences. As hoped, they have been wonderful.

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NatSCA Digital Digest – November 2024

Compiled by Ellie Clark, Collections Moves Team Leader at the Natural History Museum, London.

Welcome to the November Edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

A monthly blog series featuring the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences, and training opportunities. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News


The Unnatural History Museum Seminar Series is Back!

The Unnatural History Museum brings together museum professionals and academics across disciplines to platform vital conversations about the museum mediation of the natural world during the sixth mass extinction.

The first session, on Avian Life, is at 5pm Irish Standard Time on Wednesday 13th November and will feature papers from and discussion with Megan Kuster, University of Manchester; Clara Dawson, University of Manchester; and Elle Kaye, Ethical Taxidermist. Get free tickets here.

Collections Sage Journals 20th Anniversary – Calling all Museum Enthusiasts and Cultural Thinkers

In honour of the 20th anniversary of Collections (Collections: Sage Journals), they have announced an open call for contributions to a special “Re-Collections” series! This edition will explore personal perspectives on museum experiences and bold visions for the future of museum collections. They invite reflections, thoughts, and forward-looking ideas on the impact of museum collections. This is your chance to contribute to a series celebrating both the history and future of museums.

The deadline for submissions is the 1st of February 2025. Find submission details here.

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Conservation Matters in Wales – Christmas Conference 2023

Written by Sebastien Lherondel-Davies, 2nd year BSc student, Swansea University, whilst on placement at National Museum Cardiff and Swansea Museum.

On Wednesday 13th December 2023, conservators and curators from all over Wales gathered in Swansea for the first in-person Conservation Matters Wales Christmas Conference since the pandemic. Conservation Matters Wales is a collaboration between Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, the Federation of Museums and Art Galleries in Wales, and Cardiff University. The event, hosted by the delightful Swansea Museum, was an opportunity for professionals in the museum collections conservation sector to come together and share the wide range of projects they have been working on. The conference provided us with the chance to present our research project on a historic Lepidoptera collection. 

Swansea Museum
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NatSCA Digital Digest – October 2024

Compiled by Milo Phillips, Digitisation Coordinator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Welcome to the October edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

A monthly blog series featuring the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences, and training opportunities. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

Forensic Solutions to Pangolin Poaching

Does your collection include pangolins? Museum pangolins requested in an effort to build a stable isotope database.

The plight of the pangolin and intensification of poaching for traditional medicine is well-publicised. There is an urgent need for new forensic solutions to this crisis that transcend disciplines. The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) are seeking small scale samples from any and all pangolin species held in UK museums. Of particular interest currently is the Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis).

The project aims to develop a robust, multi-isotope provenancing map which will make it possible to determine where specific confiscated scales are poached. It will do this using stable isotopes and spatial markers such as trace metals. The team at SUERC are happy to travel for in-house destructive sampling or can provide postage materials if the curators and collection managers would prefer to take samples themselves.

For details, please contact Ruth Lewis-Smith (r.lewis-smith.1@research.gla.ac.uk) at the University of Glasgow.

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