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The Biological Collection Access Service for Europe (BioCASE)

A page from the BioCASE website

BioCASE is a transnational network of biological collections of all kinds which enables widespread unified access to distributed and heterogeneous European collection and observational databases using open-source, system-independent software and open data standards and protocols. It has built on the predecessor projects Common Datastructure for European Floristic Databases (CDEFD), Biological Collection Information Service for Europe (BioCISE), and European Natural History Specimen Information Network (ENHSIN) which laid the groundwork for implementing a fully functional service unlocking the immense biological knowledge base formed by biological collections. During the European Union Framework Programme V (FPV)-funded project phase (2001-2004), partners from 31 countries established the network, starting with meta-information on thousands of biological collections, and followed by a unit-level access network. ‘Unit-level’ data refer to individual collection or observation units, i.e. individual specimens or observation records. In contrast, 'collection-level metadata’ consist of records describing entire collections of such units. This information comes in formats ranging from XML and text data to high-resolution images and even video files.

The continuous development of BioCASE, as well as user and data provider support, was or is supported by the European Union projects ENBI and SYNTHESYS, as well as by other initiatives such as the GBIF mirror and replication project.

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