JURASSICA is a multi-site museum and university institution supported by the Jules Thurmann Foundation.
With centers of excellence in palaeontology and botany, the institution is a Swiss leader in natural sciences of the Jura range. Its unique organisational structure comprises:
- A museum
- A botanical garden, the living extension of its museum spaces
- An auxiliary geoscience service renowned for its research and teaching
- Several satellite sites, places for hands-on discovery in the field
The natural heritage that JURASSICA preserves and manages is outstanding, including collections of dinosaur footprints and Jurassic marine vertebrates. With a concept unique in Switzerland that combines museum spaces and sites in the field, the institution draws between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors per year.
It operates on a classic PRC (preservation, research, communication) model conceived as a coherent, interdependent and balanced whole. JURASSICA meets the ICOM definition of a museum, that is to say an institution that "acquires, conserves, studies, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage" while also carrying out fundamental research.