The International Generic Sample Number (IGSN) is a well-established persistent identifier for physical objects, with more than ten million samples registered across the globe. IGSNs are managed by a federated, non-profit organisation (IGSN e.V.). In October 2021, IGSN e.V. and DataCite entered a strategic partnership.

In this splinter meeting, we will introduce the upcoming changes and opportunities and invite an exchange of existing best practices for using IGSN to identify samples.

Questions we want to address at this meeting are: What does the new partnership mean for me as a researcher? What are the solutions of active IGSN agents, and what would be the steps for newly starting IGSN registration services? We welcome everyone interested in learning more about the digital curation of physical samples and ways to obtain IGSNs.