Collaborating and Connecting with Natural History
On May 14th and 15th 2026, NatSCA hosted 'Collaborating and Connecting with Natural History', the 2026 NatSCA Conference at the Ulster Museum, Belfast.
This conference was recorded and can be viewed online on our YouTube channel. [External Link]
The description of each YouTube video contains the abstract for the talk.
Day 1 - May 14th 2026
Welcome
Welcome
Welcome by Gordon Milligan OBE, Chairperson of the Board, National Museums NI
First Session - Lightning Talks
Recording the social history of the RBG Kew Herbarium and tearoom
Nina Davies: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Post-pickling processes: what can preservation fluid chemistry tell us about protein survival in wet collections?
Tiffany Shea Slater: University College
World of wasps: a multidisciplinary research-based collaboration
Alice Holloway: UCL Grant Museum of Zoology
Data from recently digitised historic herbarium needs specialist cleaning before it becomes usable
David Goyder: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Collaborating with museum studies students, to the benefit of all
Robyn Crowther: Natural History Museum, London
The Kew carpological collection
Clare Drinkell: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
A mammoth task: stabilising and protecting fossil mammal specimens in a sustainable and access-friendly way for a large-scale collections move
Lydia Amies & Caitlin Jenkins: Natural History Museum, London
Meet the taxidermist: collaborating for innovative public engagement
Julie Griffith: National Trust- Calke Abbey & Sarah Burhouse: Birdhouse Taxidermy
Second Session - Colonial Legacies
Reconfiguring the natural with monsters in the Dead Zoo
Jye O’Sullivan: National College of Art and Design
Fossils as Ancestors: building relationships with Indigenous communities at the Canadian Museum of Nature
Scott Rufolo: Canadian Museum of Nature
From Kenya to Kendal and back again: reconnecting communities through Kendal Museum’s natural and social history collection
Joe Rigby: University of Chester/ Kendal Museum
Third Session - Collaborations
High and dry: how we collaborate with a stranding network
Amy Geraghty & Emma Murphy: National Museum of Ireland
The dead plant society: a partnership project using Leeds’s herbarium collection to reach new audiences
Clare Brown: Leeds Museums and Galleries
'Our Irish Natural History': increasing public engagement with natural history collections through community-driven interpretation
Adriana Ballinger: National Museum of Ireland
Collaborating with external partners to address colonial legacies and challenge the secondary school curriculum in Liverpool
Olivia Beavers: National Museums Liverpool, Sonal Mistry: Freelance Scientific Illustrator & Aakhila Fayaz: Art Fund teaching Fellow
Fourth Session - Discussion Panel
A fresh perspective: learning from NatSCA’s emerging professionals
Kim Chandler: National Museum of Ireland, Tasmin Evans: National Museums Scotland, & Iona Rimmer Elks: Natural History Museum, London
Day 2 - May 15th 2026
First Session - Conservation
The restoration of Caspian tigers in Azerbaijan for NGO IDEA campaign (International Dialogue for Environmental Action).
Jazmine Miles Long: Independent taxidermist & Bethany Palumbo: Palumbo Conservation
“Hide” and seek: display context and remediation of unrecorded historic interventions in taxidermy rhinos at the Natural History Museum
Lauren Burleson, Claire Kelly, Efstratia Verveniotou & Erica Read: Natural History Museum, London
Second Session - Education and Outreach
There are no silly questions – engaging and inspiring with natural science collections
Nigel Gilmore-Cook: National Museums Northern Ireland
Early curators: building connections, confidence and care through cross team collaboration and co-creation
Lucy Maycock & Jo Hatton: Horniman Museum and Gardens
Grass-roots: enterprising students collaborate to develop sustainable herbarium merchandise
Kelly Hemmings & Katherine Duke: Royal Agricultural University
Third Session - Digitisation and AI
Storytelling through science: how collaborative doctoral research enriches natural history collections
Cait McDaniel: Queen Mary University of London & National Museums Northern Ireland
Talk to the animals: using AI to allow visitors to converse with museum objects
Jack Ashby: University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge
For the curious and interested: collaborations to unlock the botanical collections of Sir Hans Sloane
Mark Carine: Natural History Museum, London
AI for environmental resilient planting: from herbarium to home garden
Carol Barrie & Yvette Harvey: The Royal Horticultural Society
Creating a digital collection of snail hosts for Schistosoma parasites for science and education
Adam Cieplinski: Natural History Museum, London