---
title: Projects and Collections
description: Bring related activities together so people can follow a project across phases, places, and funding rounds.
---

# Projects and Collections

An activity describes a piece of work. A project gives that work a wider context.

A community energy project might include planning, installation, and ongoing maintenance. Describing these as separate activities makes each easier to explain and assess. Grouping them as a project lets people follow the effort as a whole.

## Keep the project together over time

A project can link to its activities without copying them. A funding platform can show the project overview, while a reviewer follows a link to the particular installation they are assessing.

Later, the team can add another phase. Earlier activities and their assessments still have their own records. A new funding round can build on that history rather than replace it with a fresh application.

## Collections are the grouping tool

In Hypercerts, a **collection** groups related records. A project is a collection marked with `type: "project"`. That is the shared convention applications use to recognize it as a project.

Collections are useful beyond projects. A funder might group activities into a portfolio, or a program might bring several project collections together. The same activity can be included in more than one collection, just as the same piece of work can matter to both a project and a funder.

Including a record is a choice made by the collection's publisher. It doesn't transfer control of the original record or, by itself, establish a partnership with its author.

## Include the places or subjects the work concerns

Sometimes it helps to describe the subject of the work separately. A land restoration project may cover several zones, each with its own location and characteristics.

A **feature** record can describe such a zone, or another subject such as a participant cohort. A collection can group features alongside activities. That lets an application show both the work and the places or subjects it concerns.

Use this extra structure when it answers a real question. A small project may only need a collection and a few activities.

## Projects and organizations play different roles

An organization is a person or group acting in the world; a project organizes the work. An organization can publish a profile and organization information through the Certified schemas, then use its account to publish projects and activities.

The project grouping describes how records belong together. Managing which team members can publish for an organization is a separate account-management task, introduced in [Client Integration](/client-integration).

For implementation details, see the [Collection reference](/lexicons/hypercerts-lexicons/collection).

Next: [Evidence and Measurements](/core-concepts/evidence-and-measurements), to show what happened within those activities.