eCASTEX

eCASTEX electronic Centralized Access to Scientific Touring Exhibitions is a two years (2007-2009) Science & Society European project supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme.

Thanks to the CASTEx project (2001-2003) which produced the Castex Guidelines for Touring Exhibitions in Europe PDF version (download here the plugin, 2.14Mb) / alternative HTML version (both versions will open in a new window) a first clear focus was made on the potentiality of scientific institutions to produce, rent or welcome scientific exhibitions from their counterparts. The further meetings, studies and reflections on this activity with people from science museums led us to measure the need for a tool that would be able to gather, present and advertise the scientific products to be exchanged.

The project e-CASTEx was born… Coordinated by the RBINS, the eCASTEx project is composed of partners active in this sector (all sites will open in a new window):

Museu de Ciències Naturals de la Ciutadella, Institut de Cultura , Spain

Natural History Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary

ECSITE The European Network for Science Centers and Museum, (Executive office) Brussels, Belgium

Already on its tracks, e-CASTEx is developing and designing an on-line database needed to stimulate the international transfer of scientific touring exhibitions between Natural History Museums, Science Centres and museums at large. Around this first electronic “catalogue” of scientific touring exhibitions, the main objective is to promote the best practices related to these activities and foster the networking around a system dedicated to professionals.
In this perspective, e-CASTEX will set up in two years a system able to run on the long term thanks to the neutral organization that is ECSITE. Hundreds of professionals are expected to get access to the European scientific touring exhibitions produced and consequently hire/rent more frequently these popular products.

The 1st Phase of the project is the development of the database, and its online implementation to make it accessible from May 2008 on.
EXTRA - for EXhibitions and TRAvelling - is the name the e-CASTEx consortium has chosen to give to the database.
During this 1st phase, EXTRA has been presented through a demo version and in a special session at the ECSITE conference in Lisbon (31st May - 2nd June 2007), which provided the project partners’ a first important set of users’ requirements. Then, a few months later, during the 2-day “Strategic” meeting organized in Barcelona, the database went through a thorough study performed by 14 experts in touring exhibitions coming from 10 different European countries, who all devoted an enthusiastic involvement in the refining and adjustment of the database according to their professionals practices.

EXTRA Experts and Ambassadors:

Bernard Alaux, Cap Sciences / AMCSTI, France
Simone Backes, Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Luxembourg
Guna Bagrade, Natural History Museum of Latvia, Latvia
Judit Bajzáth, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Hungary
Lizzy Cox London Natural History Museum, United Kingdom
Florence de Torhout, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris, France
Christophe Dufour, Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel, Suisse
Elvira Ferragut, Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, España
Bruno Aráujo Gomes, Pavilhão do Conhecimento - Ciência Viva, Portugal
Michele Lanzinger, Museo Tridentino di scienze naturali, Italia
Joan Muñoz, Museu de la Ciència i la Tècnica de Catalunya, España
Francisco Franco, Museos Científicos Coruñeses, España
Soraya Peña, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, España
Ilse van Zeeland, Naturalis - Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Nederland

This year, 2008, has seen the official launch of the system during theEcsite Annual conference in Budapest, Hungary. Today EXTRA is online and is a fully running system. To search or upload your products, register on the EXTRA website: http://www.extrascience.eu. The EXTRA Administrator is ensuring the data coherency, effective running of the system and acceptance of new users.

The 2nd Phase of the project aims at organizing Regional Workshops to be performed by each partner in a definite geographical European zone encompassing large, but most of all, small science museums eager to know more about the touring activity from experts in the field and to come up with their own experiences and cultural specificities when presenting science to their public. These workshops will enable us all to understand better the influence of the EU cultural diversity on the sector. Most of them will take place in September 2008, if you are interested in participating please contact the e-CASTEX coordinator : Olivier.Retout@naturalsciences.be

Before you register on EXTRA, get to know it by playing the:
EXTRA database Movie (Quicktime .mov, 5,68 MB, click here for the Apple QuickTime Player-plugin, the film will be opened in a new window, click here for the textual alternative to the film)

For more information on the project please contact the coordinators:

Dr Olivier Retout :
Head of International relations
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
29 rue Vautier
B - 1000 Brussels
email olivier.retout@naturalsciences.be
Tel. +32 2 627 41 14

Carole Paleco
Assistant to International relations
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
29 rue Vautier
B - 1000 Brussels
email carole.paleco@naturalsciences.be
Tel. +32 2 627 42 65