NBN Timeline

The NBN Trust was formed in 2000 as a means of overseeing and facilitating the development and work of the National Biodiversity Network.

Today the concept of sharing information about wildlife is widely accepted. To appreciate fully where we are today, however, we need to step back to the 1980s to understand how the idea for a network was formed and also to chart the highs, and a few initial lows, which have seen the evolution of the NBN to the functioning network for nature, which now exists.

1988

Linnean Society Report, “Biological Survey: Need & Network” was produced by Prof. Sam Berry. This project was promoted by the National Federation for Biological Recording (NFBR) and Biology Curators Group under Paul Harding.

1990

1990: The Co-ordinating Commission for Biological Recording (CCBR), chaired by Sir John Burnett, started work on research for building a case for a national system.
1990-1992: Collation of detailed data on data holdings, their location and use throughout the UK
1995: CCBR Report “Biological Recording in the United Kingdom” was published. This included a detailed national scheme for Biological recording and publication coincided with “Biodiversity: the UK Steering Group Report – Meeting the Rio Challenge”. The CCBR proposed national scheme was rejected by the then Department of the Environment, hence the initiatives, which followed.

1996

Initial moves to establish a UK-wide biological recording network. Foundation of NBN partnership.

1998

The first NBN Business Plan was submitted to the Millennium Commission for funding, but failed.
The Linking Local Environmental Records Centres (LERC’s) Project started by the WLTs
Sir John Burnett became Chairman designate for, what was to become, the NBN Trust.

1999

NBN Partnership confirmed, and NBN Trust proposed.
Dr Jim Munford appointed as Programme Director and Jo Purdy as Company Secretary.

2000

NBN Trust incorporated as a public limited company on 3 April 2000.
NBN Trust registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee on 25 August 2000.

2001

The prototype Gateway started.
The Linking LERC’s Project ended.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Joint Venture Agreement started
Linking Societies & Schemes Project Officer (later Development Officer), Trevor James, appointed.
Access & Accreditation Project Officer (later Data Access Officer), Oliver Grafton, appointed.
November: First NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum – “New perspectives in biological recording”

2002

Technical Liaison Officer, Andy Brewer, appointed.
Information and Administration Officer, Joanne Payne, appointed
NBN website launches
November : Second NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum – “Societies in the National Biodiversity Network: reviewing opportunities”

2003

Watsonian Vice County Boundaries digitisation project undertaken
Species Dictionary website launched with Sophia Lambert, Director of Wildlife, Countryside & Flood Management, Defra as the guest speaker
November : Third NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum – “The appliance of science: biological recording for new applications”

2004

March – Jenny Howard joins the team as Information and Communications Officer
Habitats Dictionary launched
New Gateway site launched. Ben Bradshaw, Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries, makes keynote address.
September – The NBN Gateway begins to make data available to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
November – Fourth NBN Conference held at the Zoological Society of London – “How real are your records?: exploring data quality”
November – Defra funding helps to set up the Harlequin Ladybird project as the invasive creature first arrives in Britain
December – Mandy Henshall joins the team as Communications Officer

2005

18.5million species records and 136 different datasets available on the Gateway
Business Analyst, Geoff Johnson, appointed
The end of an era as Sir John Burnett steps down as Chairman
New beginnings as Sir Neil Chalmers takes the helm.
February – Prototype web services rolled out
March – Automated uploading and the regular replication cycle begins – NBN exchange format and validator established.
June – The new release of the NBN Gateway version 3.1 launched including a redesigned database which allowed more data to be held.
July – NBN is Organisation of Note in Geographical magazine
September – First Honorary Members Award given to Paul Harding MBE
September – Second Honorary Members Award given to Sir John Burnett
November – Third Honorary Members Award given to Bob George
November – Fifth NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum – “Focus on wildlife: current activities in societies & schemes”
November – An article on the NBN Gateway features in British Wildlife magazine. The number of visits hits 100,000

2006

January – NBN contributor badges launched
March – 20 million records on the NBN Gateway and it is receiving an average of 120,000 visits per month. 20 millionth record is a common mayfly (Baetis rhodani), which was recorded in the Upper Tweed by the Tweed River Purification Board. The record was sent to the NBN Gateway by Craig MacAdam of CAMSTARS (the Caddisfly, Mayfly and Stonefly Recording Scheme).
April – Wadham brainstorming session with Trustees to review strategy
June – NBN article appears in IEEM’s In Practice magazine
July – Improving Wildlife Data Quality guide produced
July – Web services launched
September – Data Access Group is formed under the chairmanship of Keith Porter
November – Volunteer Development Group formed under the chairmanship of Amy Coyte
November – Sixth NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum – “Who has been using our records?: making use of data through the NBN”
November – Fourth Honorary Membership Award given to Charles Copp
December – Use of NBN for analysis and trends appears in BES “Bulletin”

2007

Running a National Recording Scheme or Society Guidance produced
New NBN logo and brand identity launched
March – Almost 25 million records available through the NBN Gateway (59 different datasets from 29 organisations)
Agency meetings throughout the year with Chairman and Programme Director
June – NBN article in IEEM’s In Practice magazine
NBN submits evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science Technology during their enquiry into the state of taxonomy in the UK
BRERC starts project to submit data to the NBN Gateway
22 July – Sir John Burnett dies
19 September – Jeff Watson (NBN Trustee) dies
October – Graham French joins the team as Technical Liaison Officer
October – Two day technical workshop held
November – NBN Gateway developer Jon Cooper relocates to CEH Lancaster
November: Seventh NBN Conference – “Recording together: data flow and data partnerships”
November – Fifth Honorary Membership Award given to Trevor James
November – Review of LERCs published
November – All Wales LERCs launched
December – Defra contract ends
December – OPAL is awarded Big Lottery Funding. NBN is awarded £350,000 to develop attributed polygon data and an on-line recording tool
2007 – 08 New Gateway hardware infrastructure

2008

February – new Defra contract secured until 2011
March – online training survey helps to shape the future training delivered by the NBN
March – the NBN Gateway holds 28.3 million records from 230 datasets
March – National Trust submits Wicken Fen dataset
April – RHS submits its invasive species datasets
Statements of Intent launched
Governance review undertaken. Programme Director becomes Chief Executive
April – Inaugural John Burnett Memorial Lecture given by Lord May of Oxford
May – NBN Trust Secretariat moves to new offices in Nottingham
August – Richard Burkmar joins the team under the OPAL work programme
September – Strategy Implementation Group has inaugural meeting
September – Gateway servers moved to CEH Wallingford
NSS and LERC liaison groups disband
November – OPAL launches
November – NBN Eighth Conference : Making records count: exploring the many uses of wildlife data
21 November – Aubrey Manning delivers the Sir John Burnett memorial lecture
November – Sixth Honorary Membership award given to Steve Cham
November – New NBN website launched and promotional material
December – Biological Records Centre moves from Monks Wood to CEH Wallingford. Monks Wood closes

2009

March – 32.5 million records on the NBN Gateway
2 July – Association of Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC) launches
July – new version of web services released
August – Richard Burkmar leaves the team
September – Deryck Steer retires as MD of JNCC and steps down as Treasurer of NBN Trust
September – Charles Copp, NBN Trust Honorary Member passes away
October – Kathryn McAuley joins the NBN Trust Secretariat as Communications Officer
October – Indicia, the online recording toolkit (developed under OPAL) is rolled out
19 November – One day technical seminar held at the Natural History Museum
November – Ninth NBN Conference – Non-native species: alien invaders or benign newcomers? Held at Royal Institution of Great Britain
November – Dr Sandra Knapp delivers the Sir John Burnett memorial lecture
November – Seventh Honorary membership Award given to Sam Berry
20 November – Darwin Guide to Recording Wildlife launched (produced under Defra contract)
December – Paul Gilbertson and Selvameena Dhandapani join the NBN Gateway development team.
December – Lynn Heeley joins the team as Technical Liaison Officer

2010

January – Oliver Grafton leaves the NBN Trust team to work for BARS
12 March – Ecological Consultant’s Seminar held at the Natural History Museum
March – 50 million records on the NBN Gateway
23 March – RISC (Recording Invasive Species Counts) Project launches at The Linnean Society
August – NBN Trust is 10 years old
August – Paula Lightfoot joins the team as Data Access Officer
August – Easy maps become part of NBN website
September – Jo Purdy leaves the NBN secretariat after 11 years with the NBN Trust
September – Eighth Honorary membership awarded to Derek Lott
October – Tenth NBN Conference “Opening opportunities for biodiversity – working with the NBN”. Held at The Royal Society
October – Annual John Burnett memorial lecture delivered by Dr Andy Clements, BTO

2011

January – Kathryn McAuley leaves the NBN Trust
February – 60 million records on the NBN Gateway
4 April – Gateway version 4 is released with new mapping functionality
4 April – Sarah Hyslop joins the NBN Trust as Business Administrator
May – NBN Record Cleaner released
June – Get Map URL launched on the Interactive Mapping Tool
June – Honorary member, Derek Lott passes away
July – The first OPAL dataset is uploaded to the NBN Gateway (earthworms)
July – Corfe Mullen is the first BioBlitz to use Indicia
August – Web Mapping Services (WMS) are released
September – Instant Indicia is launched
October – NBN Gateway version 4.1 is released
October – Consultation on the NBN Gateway data access controls is launched
15 October – Data management tools workshop takes place in Edinburgh
18 November – Eleventh NBN Conference – “Evolution or revolution? The impact of technologies on biological recording”. Held at The Royal Society. Richard Benyon MP delivers the keynote address
18 November – Annual John Burnett memorial lecture delivered by Sir Neil Chalmers
19 November – Data management tools workshop takes place in London
22 November – Johannes Vogel resigns as NBN Trustee
30 November – First phase of the Consultation on the NBN Gateway data access controls ends
December – Defra confirms a new contract with the NBN Trust for 2011-2014
15 December – New look NBN website launches
December – NBN Record Cleaner version 1.0.6.9 released

2012

January – Second phase of the Consultation on the NBN Gateway data access controls commences
January – Earl of Selborne is announced as NBN Trust Patron
January – Tom Hunt is appointed as ALERC National Coordinator
February – NBN Record Cleaner version 1.0.7.0 released
February – NBN Gateway version 4.2 released
21 February – Final Board of Trustees’ meeting with Sir Neil Chalmers as Chair
21 February – Alan McKirdy resigns as Trustee
21 February – Dr Roddy Fairley and Ian Owens co-opted as NBN Trustees
February – Record breaking month in terms of the number of datasets loaded onto the NBN Gateway, with 75 datasets added
27 February – Sir Neil Chalmers retires as NBN Trust Chairman
1st March – Professor Michael Hassell CBE FRS becomes the Trust’s third chairman
20 March – Data management tools workshop takes place in Birmingham
8 April – 70 million records on the NBN Gateway. The species in question is a lichen – Parmelia saxatilis
May – 75 millionth record uploaded to the NBN Gateway – Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan Balsam).
May – Data access controls consultation – outcome published
June – Charles Hussey retires from the Species Dictionary. He is replaced by Chris Raper.
July – iRecord launches
July – LERC accreditation launches
July – NBN Trust 2011-2012 Annual Report published
August – Biological Recording and Species Identification Programme saved and transferred to the Manchester Metropolitan University
November – New version of NBN Record Cleaner released
November – Andy Clements becomes a NBN Trustee
23 November – Twelfth NBN Conference “Biological recording – fit for purpose?” takes place at the Royal Society and is videod for the first time
23 November – Annual John Burnett memorial lecture is delivered by Sir John Lawton
23 November – John Newbould receives Honorary Membership of the NBN Trust
December – NBN Trust Secretariat moves offices within Nottingham
December – Richard Pywell becomes a Trustee
December – Julia Blanchard becomes a Trustee

2013

January – Guide to the NBN Data Exchange Format is updated
February – New version of NBN Record Cleaner released
February – North East Yorkshire EDC receives LERC accreditation
February – NBN holds special two day strategic meeting
March – Natural Resources Wales launches
March – Teresa Frost becomes a NBN Trustee
20 March – NBN Trust celebratory event “A quarter of a billion records project – celebrating the present, looking to the future” is held at the Natural History Museum
April – New look NBN eNews launches
April – New NBN RESTful Web Services developed
April – Thames Valley ERC receives LERC accreditation
May – Jennifer Ashworth becomes a NBN Trustee
May – iRecord ladybird phone app launches
July – National Federation for Biological Recording achieves charity status and becomes National Forum for Biological Recording (NFBR)
August – New NBN Trust membership schemes launches
August – NBN displays at INTECOL 2013
August – New NBN Record Cleaner rules
August – Defra published Triennial Review
September – NBN displays and hosts a workshop at the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Conference
September – Pond Conservation becomes Freshwater Habitats Trust
September – 90 million records on the NBN Gateway
October – NBN Gateway version 5 launches
October – NBN Trust convenes a meeting to discuss Pollinators at the Natural History Museum
9 November – Bob George, the NBN Trust’s fourth Honorary Member passes away
15 November – 13th annual NBN Conference is held at the Royal Society with a theme of “Future Challenges for the NBN”
15 November – Honorary membership award given to Stuart Ball
15 November – Sir John Burnett memorial lecture given by Professor Bill Sutherland
December – NBN Conference survey carried out

2014

January – Paula Lightfoot leaves as the NBN Trust’s Data Access Officer
20th January – Workshop to discuss use of NBN data with the research community is held at the Natural History Museum
February – Rachel Stroud is appointed as the NBN Trust’s Data & Liaison Officer
March – NBN exhibits at Ecobuild
March – New Director of OPAL UK appointed
March – John Sawyer is appointed as the NBN Trust’s new Chief Executive, to take over from Jim Munford on 1 May 2014
March – Confirmation that the ALERC National Coordinator role will continue until September 2014
March – rNBN package is available in beta mode for testing
March – Natural Capital Committee second report published
May – John Sawyer takes over as CEO and Jim Munford steps down
August – NBN Strategy consultation commences
September – 100 millionth species record (2-spot ladybird) is added to the NBN Gateway
October – NBN Strategy consultation – outputs are summarised
October – NBN Strategy workshops take place in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
November – NBN Strategy workshop takes place in England
20 November – Two NBN Gateway workshops held to discuss T&C and needs analysis
20 November – first meeting of Gateway User Group takes place
21 November – 14th NBN Conference held at The Royal Society, London with a theme of “Climate, collaboration and collection – Informing the new conservation agenda”
21 November – Honorary Membership given to Jim Munford and Val Burton
21 November – Sir John Burnett memorial lecture given by Professor Chris Thomas
November – Peter Doherty of Atlas of Living Australia spends a week in the UK talking about the Atlas and data storage
December – Field Studies Council becomes 100th member of the NBN

2015

January – First version of NBN Strategy drafted
January – UK Wildlife Portal created – working with Atlas of Living Australia
January – NBN Gateway Technical and User review report finalised
January – Case Study for the data.gov.uk website written on the Release of Data Project
February – Giselle Sterry joins the team as Business Administrator to cover Sarah Hyslop’s maternity leave
February – Successful bid to Release of Data Grant projects for end of year money for ongoing work to project manage existing contracts and publish data
March – New NBN Communications Strategy published
March – Atlas of Living Wales and Northern Ireland meetings held
3 April – NBN is fifteen!
April – NBN draft Strategic Action Plan 2015-2020 released for comment
May – Ella Vogel joins the team as Consultants Portal project Officer
July – Lizzy Arnold starts a summer internship with the NBN
July – Alan Stewart and Tim Hill join the NBN Board of Trustees
August – NBN Strategy 2015 – 2020 is published
August – UK Awards to celebrate biological recording and information sharing are launched
August – BRERC makes all of its non-sensitive species records, older than 15 years, available to the public at full resolution on the NBN Gateway.
September – Purba Choudhury joins the team as Communications Officer
September – Atlas of Living Scotland launches in beta form
September – NBN Crowdsourcing Data Capture Summit
September – Data Holding Certificates for NBN Data Partners published
September – Consultants Portal reaches 16000+ records
October – PhD student Ben Brown joins the team to carry out a Recorder Motivation project
October – Atlas of Living Wales meeting with Welsh Government and Northern Ireland process started
6 November – John Sawyer, NBN Trust CEO dies
17 November – Rachel Stroud becomes interim CEO
19 and 20 November – First ever two day NBN Conference held in York with over 170 delegates attending
19 November – Winners of the inaugural UK Awards to celebrate biological recording and information sharing announced at a special evening ceremony in York
20 November – Sir John Burnett memorial lecture given by David Stroud
20 November – Honorary membership of the NBN given to Bill Ely
6 December – NBN Gateway map used in BBC Countryfile feature on Wild Boar

2016

January – James McCulloch (winner of the Gilbert White youth award 2015) features in My Agenda in the January issue of BBC Wildlife magazine
February – David Fenwick (winner of the David Robertson adult award 2015) features in My Agenda in the February issue of BBC Wildlife magazine
February – NBN and SBIF agree to bring the two organisations together to improve alignment
March – NBN response to “Opinion” article on confusion of recording schemes in December 2015 BBC Wildlife magazine, published in letters, March 2016 issue
1 April – Christine Johnston becomes the NBN Scottish Liaison Officer
1 April – Giselle Sterry becomes the NBN Membership and Business Development Officer
23 May – Jo Judge becomes the NBN Trust CEO
27 May – NBN Atlas Scotland launches to stakeholders at the RBG, Edinburgh
August – first meeting of the Working Group for Captivating & Engaging
August – Jo Judge made a presentation on the NBN and NBN Atlas at Birdfair
25 October – Nottingham in Parliament Day
17 and 18 November – Sixteenth NBN Conference is held at National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Almost 180 delegates attended.
17 November – Winners of the 2016 UK Awards for biological recording and information sharing announced in Edinburgh
18 November – Sir John Burnett memorial lecture given by Charles Godfray
18 November – Honorary membership of the NBN Trust given to Steve Wilkinson
November – NBN Atlas is shortlisted for Nature of Scotland Awards
November – Data Partner Agreements circulated to all data partners for transfer of data to the NBN Atlas from the NBN Gateway

2017

February – Rachel Stroud leaves the NBN Trust
February – Biological recording display installed at Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
February – Duncan Rowland joins the NBN team as temporary Programmer for the NBN Atlas
28 February – deadline for the return of Data Partner Agreements for transfer from the NBN Gateway to NBN Atlas.
31 March – NBN Gateway is turned off. Thanks for the memories.
1 April – NBN Atlas, NBN Atlas Scotland and NBN Atlas Wales go live.
May – PhD student Jonathan Fenn joins the NBN Trust for 3-months to produce some help-guides for the new NBN Atlas.
July – Sophia Ratcliffe joins the NBN Trust as Technical & Data Partner Support Officer.
29 September – for the first time, a shortlist for the 2017 UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing is announced, in each award category.
16 and 17 November – Seventeenth NBN Conference is held at National Museum Cardiff. Around 180 delegates attended.
16 November – Winners of the 2017 UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing are announced in Cardiff.
17 November – Sir John Burnett memorial lecture given by Professor Yvonne Buckley.
17 November – Honorary membership of the NBN Trust given to Dr Mark Hill and to Professor Helen Roy.
28 November – the Nottingham office of the NBN Trust moves from Stoney Street to new premises on St Mary’s Gate, still within Nottingham’s historic Lace Market.
November – NBN Atlas helps in the discovery of a species new to the UK, Hermaea cantabra
1 December – Reuben Roberts joins the NBN Trust as Systems Developer for the NBN Atlas.

2018

February – NBN Atlas helps in the discovery of another species new to the UK, Hermaea paucicirra
28 February – New Trustees are welcomed to the NBN Board – Wilma Harper, Neil Hodges, Belinda Howell, Matt Postles, Liz Proctor, Mandy Rudd
28 February – A new NBN Atlas Documentation and Help Portal is launched
February – SBIF review business case drafted
February – David Robertson youth award presented in Millport to Mhairi McCann
February – ID Trainers programme finishes
March – Professor RJ (Sam) Berry, NBN Trust Honorary member, dies
3 April – NBN Atlas Isle of Man launches
25 April – NBN Atlas Wales Stakeholder Engagement Day
6 June – Nominations opened for the 2018 UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing
21 June – NBN Atlas Scotland Stakeholder Engagement Day
22 June – Ella Vogel leaves her role as the NBN Projects Development Officer
September – SBIF Review shortlisted for a Nature of Scotland Award
November – SBIF Review Final Report released
November – Recorder 6 Maintenance and development plan announced
November – Sir John Lawton FRS becomes NBN Trust Patron
21 & 22 November – 18th NBN Conference held at the Albert Hall, Nottingham
21 November – Winners of the 2018 UK Awards for Biological Recording and Information Sharing are announced in Nottingham
21 November – The Wildlife Trusts are announced as the winner of the 2018 John Sawyer NBN Open Data Award
22 November – Honorary Membership of the NBN Trust is given to Sue Townsend and Dr Sarah Whild
22 November – Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture is delivered by Professor Jane Memmott
17 – 19 December – NBN Trust has a joint stand with GBIF at the BES annual meeting, in Birmingham

2019

January – NBN Atlas records added to the UK Lakes Portal
13 February – Michael Hassell retires as Chairman of the NBN Trust after seven years at the helm and Neil Hodges takes over.
15 March – NBN Trust is awarded £190,500 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to build its resilience and sustainability
16 April – Beta NBN Atlas Northern Ireland is launched
8 May – NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording are launched, re-branded and with five updated categories
29 May – NBN Atlas Northern Ireland launches at the Ulster Museum
July – Caroline Van Dierkson and Stephen Page join the NBN Trust as NBN Atlas Project Manager and NBN Atlas Systems Developer, respectively
July – Esmee Fairbairn awards NBN Trust £375,000 over three and a half years to enable the further development of the NBN Atlas
8 October – the 25 individuals and groups shortlisted as Finalists of the 2019 NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording announced
13 & 14 November – 19th NBN Conference held at the Albert Hall, Nottingham
13 November – Winners of the 2019 NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording are announced in Nottingham
14 November – Honorary Membership of the NBN Trust is given to Mike Weideli and Sally Rankin
22 November – Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture is delivered by Tony Juniper CBE
December – NBN Trust Strategy Review Survey launched

2020

1 January – Trevor James, ex NBN Trust Development Officer, is awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List
March – NBN Atlas Isle of Man reaches one million wildlife records
March – Damien High and Hauwa’u Uraifa Shehu, two masters students from the University of Salford join the NBN Trust on 12 week placements.
March – the Covid-19 pandemic causes the NBN Trust Secretariat to start working from home
March – Burial Grounds Portal launches, using the NBN Atlas infrastructure
3 April – the NBN Trust is 20 as it was incorporated as a public limited company on 3 April 2000
May – Nominations open for NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2020
May – Steve Page leaves the NBN Atlas Development Team and recruitment for a new Full Stack Developer begins
June – Professor Helen Roy, NBN Trust Honorary Member, becomes the new President of the Royal Entomological Society
5 June – Trevor James BEM, NBN Trust Project Officer and later Development Officer dies
13 July – Justin Dee joins the team as NBN Full Stack Developer
25 August – The NBN Trust celebrates 20 years as a charity
September – Large BTO Dataset updated on the NBN Atlas with records to the end of 2019
October – The shortlist of NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording are announced
October – First draft of NBN Trust Strategy 2021-2025 is available for comment
October – Sir John Lawton, NBN Trust Patron, calls for £1 billion to Make Space for Nature, in letter to the Prime Minister.
13 November – Reuben Roberts – NBN Atlas Systems Developer leaves the team
18 November – 20th NBN Conference held online for the first time, in collaboration with iSpot and the Open University. 224 delegates register – the highest number ever – with 199 online throughout the day.
18 November – Winners and runners up in the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording are announced at an online ceremony
18 November – Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture is given by Sir Charles Burrell of the Knepp Castle Estate
November – recruitment for NBN Trust CEO commences as Jo Judge is set to leave the organisation in February
November – 20th anniversary article appears in the Linnean, journal of the Linnean Society

2021

21 January – BBC Winterwatch features the Comma butterfly, which includes a distribution map from the NBN Atlas
31 January – Jo Judge leaves the NBN Trust
1 February – Mandy Henshall takes on Interim CEO role
6 April – iNaturalistUK launches – a collaboration between NBN Trust, Biological Records Centre and Marine Biological Association
19 April – Lisa Chilton joins the NBN Trust as CEO
30 April – Christine Johnston, NBN Atlas Project Officer, retires
May – Five new Trustees join the NBN Trust Board – Peter Bridgewater, Terence Jagger, David Slawson, Camilla Taylor, Pete Tomlin
June – Mapping the Species Data Pathway – New Report by the Geospatial Commission published
27 August – Caroline van Dierkson, NBN Trust Project Manager leaves the team
September – Douglas Boyes, NBN Newcomer award winner 2020, sadly dies
6 October – Helen Manders Jones appointed as NBN Atlas Lead Developer
9 November – Andrew Wood steps down as Trustee after 14 years
10 November – Justin Dee, NBN Atlas Systems Developer, leaves the team
24 November – 21st NBN Conference held online in conjunction with The Open University and iSpot. The theme is “Biodiversity data – from collection to use”
24 November – Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Rosie Hails, Director of Science and Nature at the National Trust
24 November – NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording – winners and runners up announced in an online ceremony
24 November – NBN Trust Honorary Membership given to Lynne Farrell

2022

28 February – Keith Raven joins the team as NBN Atlas Developer with DevOps
April – NBN Atlas – Fit for the Future Project launched
4 May – launch of “Making Data Work For Nature” the NBN Trust’s five-year strategy (2022-2027).
27 May – Nominations opened for the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2022
June – Beautiful Burial Ground Project, which is pioneering the use of the NBN Atlas for a specific project and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund was awarded the Best Practice Award for Knowledge Sharing (2022) by CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management).
September – Scottish marine biodiversity data review published.
October – Better Biodiversity Data project, funded by Scottish Government and NatureScot, approved with NBN Trust as the lead organisation for delivering the project.
9 November – 22nd NBN Conference held at the Natural History Museum, London. This was the first face to face conference for three years and the theme was “Making data work for nature”.
9 November – Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture delivered by Richard Benwell, Chief Executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link.
9 November – Winners and runners up in the 2022 NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording announced in a ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London.

2023

January – We completed two important milestones in the NBN Atlas Fit for the Future project: 1. the decoupling of the NBN customisations (i.e. we removed the elements that had been altered from the ALA) and upgraded the platform code. 2.The first upgraded service, the Authentication Service, which cuts across the whole of the NBN Atlas Platform, went into production.
January – The Rivers Trust used the NBN Atlas API to publish selected invasive species occurrence data to ArcGIS online.
February – we launched our survey to understand how we can improve the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording.
February – the NBN Trust joined the National Education Nature Park project.
February – the NBN Trust and other stakeholders urged the government to re-instate the UK as a full voting member of GBIF, resulting in us being returned to full membership.
February – We worked with AWS to learn how to better structure the NBN Atlas architecture and operate in the cloud. The resulting architecture and improved security and disaster recovery protocols meant that this was used as an AWS case study.
March – Scotland Programme Manager, Michael Tetley and Partnership Officer, Christine Tansey, joined the Better Biodiversity Data project team.
April – As part of the New to Nature programme we were able to recruit Rhiannydd Stock as our NBN Atlas Support Officer
April – With the support of the Enterprise Development Programme, the NBN Trust recruited Sami Walter as a business development intern.
May – the NBN Trust was part of a Data Study Group with the Alan Turing Institute. The overall objective of this Study was to develop tools to understand the comprehensiveness of the NBN Atlas as a biodiversity inventory, and to highlight the value and impact of sharing biodiversity data
June – NBN Trust Honorary Member, John Newbould, was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for voluntary services to ecological surveying and data collection.
July – Marise Astall-Palin joined the team as the NBN Trust’s new Finance and Business Officer.
September – NBN Trust Annual Impact Report 2022/23 was published.
27 September – State of Nature 2023 was published. The NBN Trust played a key role in helping to create the State of Nature Partnership website.
October – we said farewell to Sophia Ratcliffe, the NBN Atlas Data Manager. Sophia worked for the NBN Trust from 2017.
October – Emily Baker joined the BBD project team as Data and Digital Services Manager
October – Philip Bysh joined the BBD project team as Lead Business Analyst
October – Butterfly Conservation made over 46 million records of UK butterflies and moths publicly available on the NBN Atlas.
October – The Alan Turing Data Study Group final report was published
October – The NBN Trust became a fully remote organisation, with all of the team home-working. It also meant we needed a new registered address – 27 Old Gloucester St, Holborn, London WC1N 3AX
November – Bethany Fairbairn joined the BBD project team as Business Analyst
23 November – the NBN Conference was held at the National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, with just under 160 delegates joining us. Màiri McAllan MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition gave an opening speech.
23 November – Natalie Prosser, CEO of the Office for Environmental Protection gave the Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture.
23 November – the winner of the John Sawyer NBN Open Data Award was the National Longhorn Beetle Recording Scheme.
23 November – NBN Trust AGM was held
November – Three new Better Biodiversity Data team members joined – Emily Baker, BBD Data and Digital Services Manager; Bethany Fairbairn, Business Analyst and Philip Bysh, Lead Business Analyst (on a consultancy basis)
November – Six new NBN Trustees joined the NBN Trust Board: Dominic Aslan, Rob Cooke, Dr Gail Hutton, Alice Kershaw, Louise Li and Eleni Polychroniadou
November – Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS stepped down as NBN Trust Patron after five years.
December – The NBN Trust was delighted to receive a Go Further, Faster award from Amazon Web Services’ inaugural 2023 IMAGINE Grant UK for Non-profits.
December – iNaturalistUK 2023 – the “Year in Review” was published
December – Will Millard joined the NBN Trust team as the NBN Atlas Biodiversity Data Officer.
December – The NBN Atlas Accelerator Project commenced. Running from December 2023 to March 2025, it will drive greater mobilisation and use of UK biodiversity data. We partnering with Natural England to achieve these goals through the Project, which is funded by Defra through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services programme.

2024

15 January – the revamped NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording launched with two new categories – Lifetime Achievement Award and Verifier’s Award
29 February – NBN Trust Chair, Neil Hodges, stepped down, as did Trustees, Roddy Fairley, Wilma Harper, Belinda Howell, Matt Postles and David Slawson.
6 March – we held our first online members’ meeting
April – Mel Hardie joined the NBN Trust team as Biodiversity Data Manager (NBN Atlas).
August – Holly McCain joined the NBN Trust as its first ever Fundraising Lead (Trusts and Corporates)

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