Biocultural Centre Launches Seven Seed Projects
The Max Planck-NTU Singapore Centre for Biocultural Worlding is linking knowledge-holding communities with scholars and artists across the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Botany
The Max Planck-NTU Singapore Centre for Biocultural Worlding, established in April 2026, has launched seven seed projects. The projects connect knowledge-holding communities with academics, artists, curators, and practitioners.
Why it matters
The projects aim to document community-held ecological and cultural knowledge through equitable partnerships rather than extraction. They span several regions, including Asia-Pacific communities and the wider Indian Ocean.
The Centre launched seven seed projects, using methods including oral histories, film, sound, photography, mapping, and material practices. Project durations, funding levels, and expected publication outputs were not specified.
The players
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
A German research institute devoted to studying the history of science, and a joint founder of the Centre.
Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
A Singapore-based art institution affiliated with Nanyang Technological University, and a joint founder of the Centre.
The details
One project documents Orang Seletar community buildings and ecological knowledge in Singapore through film and mapping, while another records Kattunayakan oral knowledge and honey-hunting practices in India. Other projects involve Thari communities in Pakistan's Thar Desert, Adivasi communities in Jharkhand, India, and a shark-calling tradition in Papua New Guinea.
Timeline
April 2026: The Max Planck-NTU Singapore Centre for Biocultural Worlding was established.
November 2, 2026: The Centre published a press release announcing the seven seed projects.
The Big Picture
The Centre is a joint initiative of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and NTU's Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. It extends institutional history-of-science work toward knowledge held by Indigenous and local communities.
The projects produce public-facing films, archives, maps, and sound works that communities and researchers can access. Such materials may shape how traditional ecological knowledge is preserved and shared.
The takeaway
Collaborative, community-led research can preserve ecological knowledge while keeping its holders central to the work. The seven projects offer a model for how institutions can partner with knowledge-holding communities across regions.
Further reading
Explore more research on Botany and the plant knowledge traditions this project touches.
More information
Read details on each CBCW seed project and its collaborators.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Informationdienst Wissenschaft e.V. - idw.
