Natural Sciences Collections Association Conference 2026

Collaborating and Connecting with Natural History

I was delighted to present at the 2026 Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) Annual Conference and AGM, hosted at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Centred around the theme of Collaboration, this year’s conference explored the profound impact of partnerships with communities, industry, and NGOs, and how we advocate for natural history collections in a rapidly changing world.

Jazmine and I after our presentation

Sharing our trip to Baku

Alongside Jazmine Miles-Long, I delivered a talk sharing our recent experiences in Azerbaijan. We undertook an intensive, 12-day taxidermy restoration project on two extinct Caspian tigers, which will eventually feature in a new natural history museum in Baku.For this reason it was important we completed the restoration to look accurate for the species while respecting the limitations of working on such historically and scientifically valuable specimens.

Thank you to the NatSCA committee for accepting our talk and for putting on such a lovely conference as always.