Our Mission

 

The mission of the University of Wisconsin Insect Research Collection is to support the global research community. We strive to fulfill this mission by working towards several interrelated collections management goals. These include conducting field surveys and collections-based research and serving as a permanent repository for scientifically valuable specimens and collections event data. These research voucher specimens—along with the tens of thousands of additional specimens added every year—provide the associated collection data that allow us to document the entomofauna of the Great Lakes Region, the United States, and selected insect groups worldwide.

Thus, we fulfill the WIRC mission by discovering, documenting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge about the natural world through the Land Grant Mission of scientific research, education, and outreach.

The Wisconsin Insect Research Collection is a natural history collection and a non-profit, research, and educational Research Core of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, located in the Department of Entomology.