Les Herbonautes in the magazine "Culture et Recherche"

« ... cultural research and cultural actors produce expert knowledge, which is an essential contribution to science ... »

In its 140th issue, the Ministry of Culture's magazine "Culture and Research" focused on "Cultural Research and Participatory Sciences". In this context, the editorial team addresses the particular interest of these new cultural and scientific research practices that integrate civil society into the process of knowledge production. An article has been written on the participatory science programme "Les Herbonautes" of the RECOLNAT infrastructure. The scientific and cultural interest of the missions proposed by the platform was presented, as well as the value of the multidisciplinarity required for the identification of specimens. Motivated contributors contribute their knowledge and personal expertise. The information thus obtained is cross-referenced in order to optimise the validity of the data, enabling the inventory and digitisation work on the collections to evolve. In 7 years of operation approximately 440,000 specimens have been digitised, thanks to 4,000 contributors and more than 5,000,000 contributions. The constant development of this platform has allowed the broadening of mission themes, as recently with the launch of the first Palaeontology mission: the « Palaeonauts ».