The Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis is housed in a modern building in the city of Leiden and was opened to the public in 1998. The centre was founded in 1820 and much of its collections date back to the 19th and 20th centuries.

Naturalis has a staff of about 160 people, which include, amongst others, scientists, collection managers, exhibition designers, information officers, pedagogues as well as a large number of associate researchers and volunteers. It has three main departments: public, collections and research. The zoological, the palaeontological and the geological collections are estimated at about 12 million objects.

Further information: http://www.naturalis.nl