CryoArks was developed to address the need to provide a sustainable resource of samples for genetics and genomics research on animal species. Species and populations are disappearing from the wild and permitting issues are increasingly becoming a barrier for fundamental science and conservation management projects. Therefore, there is a clear and increasingly evident need to responsibly curate and make available samples that have been collected in the past is becoming more and more evident.

The aim of CryoArks is to ameliorate these problems by leveraging the vast range of samples that have been collected in the past, by sampling as many new species and populations from ex-situ collections over the coming years and bringing these collections together, both physically and informatically, to provide a resource that will be responsibly managed but with the rights and responsibilities of scientists in mind.