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Consortium Vision

The long-term sustainability of the Heritage Samples Registry depends on collaboration between participating institutions and alignment with established research infrastructure. The Registry is therefore being developed with a consortium-based model in mind, allowing organisations to contribute expertise, resources, and governance as the service grows.

Registering IGSNs: institutional pathways

IGSNs can be registered through several recognised routes within the DOI and DataCite ecosystem. Institutions may mint IGSNs:

  • as individual members of a DOI registration consortium,
  • collectively on behalf of a group of institutions,
  • or by forming a new dedicated consortium if scale and demand justify this approach.

In the initial phase, the Heritage Samples Registry will operate through an existing DOI consortium arrangement, working via established national infrastructure. This provides a practical and cost-effective route to begin assigning IGSNs while workflows and community needs are refined.

As participation grows, the consortium model may evolve to better reflect the scale and diversity of contributing institutions.

Sustainability and shared responsibility

The Registry is designed to operate as a lightweight, distributed service that complements existing institutional systems rather than replacing them. As a result, the core running costs are expected to remain modest at small scale, covering areas such as:

  • DOI registration fees, which scale with the number of identifiers issued,
  • hosting and technical infrastructure,
  • routine maintenance and development of the service,
  • administrative coordination and community engagement.

During the initial development and pilot phase, these costs are being met through existing projects and institutional support. This approach allows the Registry to mature technically and organisationally before a formal sustainability model is finalised.

Towards a supporting consortium

In the longer term, the aim is to establish a consortium of supporting institutions who collectively contribute resources on an annual basis to ensure the continued operation and evolution of the Registry. Contributions may include a combination of direct financial support and in-kind effort, particularly in areas such as technical maintenance, governance, outreach, and domain expertise.

This collaborative model reflects the shared benefit that persistent identification of heritage science samples provides across the community, while avoiding the need for a single institution to bear the full operational burden.

Governance and stewardship

As the Registry develops, a representative governance structure will be established to guide its strategic direction and ensure responsible stewardship. This is expected to include:

  • a management or steering board composed of representatives from participating institutions, and
  • a technical advisory group responsible for the long-term sustainability and evolution of the system.

Initially, participation in these roles is expected to be supported primarily through in-kind institutional contributions. Should the Registry scale significantly in terms of participating institutions or volume of registered samples, the governance and staffing model will be reviewed to ensure that the service remains robust, responsive, and sustainable.

Scaling with community needs

The Registry is designed to scale progressively in response to demonstrated community demand. At small scale, annual running costs are expected to remain relatively modest; however, increased uptake — for example through large-scale legacy sample registration or expansion into additional domains such as natural history collections — may introduce additional onboarding and operational requirements.

The consortium model provides a flexible mechanism to accommodate this growth, ensuring that the Registry can expand responsibly while maintaining a stable and sustainable service for the international heritage science community.

International and collaborative outlook

The Registry is intended as an international service, open to participation from institutions and initiatives worldwide. While early development has been driven by a core group of collaborating partners, the long-term vision is to support a globally distributed community of heritage science researchers, conservators, and collection-holding organisations.

Supporting organisations may include not only individual institutions, but also research infrastructures, funded projects, and national or international initiatives that share an interest in persistent identification and linking of heritage science samples.

As participation expands, options for multilingual interfaces and documentation will be explored to ensure that the Registry remains accessible to a broad and diverse international user community.