Defra funding of the NBN and its development
The NBN via the NBN Trust has benefited from Defra funding since 2001. This money has helped us to develop the NBN Gateway as well as specific projects such as the South West Pilot and the Harlequin Ladybird project.
Contract 2011 - 2014
A new contract from 2011 - 2014 has just been awarded and more information will follow on this page. In the meantime please see the news article announcing the new contract.
Contract 2008 - 2011
The Trust entered into a three year contract with Defra in February 2008 and this ended in February 2011.
The contract had four main themes:
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Strategic and operational management
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Wider use of data
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Greater access to data
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Further engagement
Strategic and Operational Management
This theme provided the resources, programme and project management skills to manage the contract. Geoff Johnson was responsible for this part of the contract.
Wider Use of Data
Work under this
theme provided a balance of ongoing analysis and implementation projects running in parallel. It developed a series of projects and work programmes to build tools and resources to increase and improve the use of NBN data with new and existing partners and the general public.
Geoff Johnson was responsible for this theme.
Greater Access to Data
Work under this theme was split between the maintenance and development of the NBN Gateway and the development of a set of projects to increase and improve data availability for priority species by engaging with new and already established partnerships. The Gateway service and development work progressed under the framework of the Technical Steering group, which comprises representation from the country conservation agencies.
Work to increase and improve the availability of relevant biodiversity data was steered by the Data Access Group comprising representation from the country conservation agencies, the Environment Agency and volunteer recording groups. Paula Lightfoot, the Data Access Officer was responsible for this theme.
Improving data flow was a considerable part of this theme and the following reports have been produced:
Marine Biological Association - Marine Biodiversity Data Flow
Butterfly Conservation - Improving the quality of lepidoptera records available via the Gateway
British Trust for Ornithology - Enhancing data quality of bird records
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Botanical Society of the British Isles - Improving the quality of botanical records available via the NBN Gateway
Further Engagement
Work under this theme included an analysis phase to document and develop new and existing engagement opportunities. This was followed up with a set of projects in partnership with organisations experienced in public engagement.
Mandy Henshall was responsible for this theme.
Projects
Three projects have been carried out under the Further Engagement theme:
1. Engaging the Public in Monitoring Non-Native Species
The aim of this project is to build on the success of the Harlequin Ladybird project, which has been successful, primarily, because of the involvement of the public and volunteers in registering their sightings.
The Harlequin Ladybird has benefitted from considerable attention, but it is only one of many Non-Native Species now in the UK. This project selected initially six and laterly 4 other Non-Natives with which to engage the public and allow their sightings to be recorded online. The project will re-launch later in 2011 with 4 more species, making a total of 14.
A key aspect of the project is working with national societies and schemes.
The selected fourteen species are:
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Muntjac
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Water primrose
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Chinese Mitten Crab
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Tree-of-Heaven
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American Skunk Cabbage
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Zebra Mussel
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Citrus longhorn beetle
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American Bullfrog
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Floating pennywort
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Water fern
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Southern green shieldbug
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Wakame
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Western conifer seed
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Rhododendron leafhopper
The project, called RISC (Recording Invasive Species Counts) launched on 22nd March 2010 at the Linnean Society of London. We were delighted with the press coverage we received.
This project supplements the larger non-natives project, Great Britain's Non Native Species Information Portal, that runs under the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) - www.nonnativespecies.org - which is responsible for Great Britain’s strategy on non-natives.
2. Darwin Guide to Recording Wildlife
In 2009, the year celebrating Darwin's bicentennary and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species, we produced the Darwin Guide to Recording Wildlife.
This publication is aimed at those with an interest in wildlife, whatever their age, who would like to find out about how they can get more involved. It conveys the value of Darwin's example for appreciating and monitoring wildlife today and the importance of sharing knowledge and expertise.
It features stories of Darwin's work, the experiments and monitoring he carried out at his home in Downe and on board the Beagle, and it shows the influence he had on his own children and his protege John Lubbock and how they in turn became involved.
The main part of the guide then turns to how you can get more involved, why recording is important and how to go about it.
The Guide launched at the NBN Conference on 20th November 2009, four days before the anniversary of the publication of The Origin of The Species.
A flyer was sent to all secondary schools in the UK to allow them to order copies of the Guide and to date we have sent out over 1,400 copies to schools and other establishments.
Please visit the Publications page if you would like to order your copy or download the Guide here.
3. Royal Society Summer Exhibition
The final project under this theme was part funding of a Harlequin Ladybird exhibit at the 2009 Royal Society Summer Exhibition, which took place from 29th June to 4th July.
The exhibit was led by Helen Roy (Biological Records Centre) and Remy Ware (Cambridge University) and represented the collaborative nature of research on the Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis). The exhibit was constructed around a time-line celebrating the early work of Mike Majerus, leading to the arrival of H. axyridis and represented current collaborative research including three sub-themes:
i) Monitoring the spread of H. axyridis in Britain
ii) The impact of H. axyridis on native biodiversity
iii) Natural enemy escape hypothesis
The exhibit has been constructed for ongoing use at such events.
Future funding through Defra
We are currently waiting to find out if Defra will be providng funding to the NBN as part of a new contract with them.