diff --git a/client/src/components/Collections/CollectionCreatorModal.vue b/client/src/components/Collections/CollectionCreatorModal.vue
index 278e25f3d706..6788503a60a6 100644
--- a/client/src/components/Collections/CollectionCreatorModal.vue
+++ b/client/src/components/Collections/CollectionCreatorModal.vue
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { computed, ref, watch } from "vue";
 
 import type { HDASummary, HistoryItemSummary, HistorySummary } from "@/api";
 import { createDatasetCollection } from "@/components/History/model/queries";
+import { useGlobalUploadModal } from "@/composables/globalUploadModal.js";
 import { useCollectionBuilderItemsStore } from "@/stores/collectionBuilderItemsStore";
 import { useHistoryStore } from "@/stores/historyStore";
 import localize from "@/utils/localization";
@@ -20,6 +21,8 @@ import Heading from "@/components/Common/Heading.vue";
 import GenericItem from "@/components/History/Content/GenericItem.vue";
 import LoadingSpan from "@/components/LoadingSpan.vue";
 
+const { openGlobalUploadModal } = useGlobalUploadModal();
+
 interface Props {
     historyId: string;
     showModal: boolean;
@@ -262,6 +265,9 @@ function resetModal() {
         </BAlert>
         <BAlert v-else-if="!creatorItems?.length" variant="info" show>
             {{ localize("No items available to create a collection.") }}
+            <BLink class="text-decoration-none" @click.stop.prevent="openGlobalUploadModal">
+                Upload some datasets and try again.
+            </BLink>
         </BAlert>
         <BAlert v-else-if="creatingCollection" variant="info" show>
             <LoadingSpan :message="localize('Creating collection')" />