Evolutionsmuseet Celebrates Linnaeus’s Birthday with a New Fundraising Initiative: Biodiversity Beyond Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, born in 1707, laid the foundation for modern biological classification and founded Uppsala’s first natural history collections. His contributions to science changed the world. At Evolutionsmuseet, his legacy lives on as the museum works to connect past, present, and future knowledge to address today’s biodiversity crisis.
Today, on 23 May, the birthday of Carl Linnaeus, Evolutionsmuseet at Uppsala University proudly launches Biodiversity Beyond Linnaeus (BBL), a new fundraising initiative with the ambitious goal of raising 100 million SEK by 2027. The funds will be used to recruit expert curatorial staff to safeguard and develop the University’s natural history collections housing more than 5 million specimens, a legacy that began with Linnaeus himself. We need experts in Zoology, Botany, Paleontology and Mineralogy to digitise our collections and make important biodiversity data available on open biodiversity databases, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Over the past six months, the Biodiversity Beyond Linnaeus core team – Fevziye Hasan, Paco Cárdenas, Britt Andermann, and museum director Mats Eriksson – have laid the groundwork for this initiative. The long-term vision is to highlight the importance of Evolutionsmuseet natural history collections as an important data infrastructure with important biodiversity data that can aid in finding solutions to the biodiversity crisis.
“The world is in a biodiversity crisis. We are talking about the sixth mass extinction on planet Earth,” says Mats Eriksson, Director of Evolutionsmuseet. “We need to use every means we can to improve the prospects for future generations, and natural history museums have in their collections data that will become increasingly important in this perspective. We can help describe the past, present and future.”
Biodiversity Beyond Linnaeus is part of Uppsala University’s broader commitment to addressing the complex challenges of our time through basic research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and global engagement.
“In 2027 Uppsala University will be 550 years old. This anniversary comes at a time of multiple and complex global challenges,” says Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt. “With our strong basic research, unbounded interdisciplinary challenge-driven research and global outlook, we are well equipped to contribute to solutions
We are excited that Biodiversity Beyond Linnaeus can attract support to help preserve the natural history collections at Evolutionsmuseet, so that future generations can benefit from centuries of scientific discovery to address future global challenges.