The 18-month NBN Atlas Accelerator project was delivered between December 2023 and June 2025, supported by Natural England through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment program (funded by the UK government) and in partnership with the Environment Agency and the NBN Trust.
The project facilitated and accelerated the NBN Trust’s work to enhance the value of the NBN Atlas to the UK conservation community through two complementary streams of work.
Stream 1: The first stream implemented high-priority, high-impact enhancements to the platform to improve accessibility and ease of use, helping to mobilise open and accessible biodiversity data.
Stream 2: The second stream strengthened a well-connected and functional biodiversity data community and infrastructure, following FAIR and Open Data principles across all sectors of the biodiversity data community.
A landmark achievement of this project was the development of the first NBN Atlas Strategy, which will guide future development of the NBN Atlas for the next five years. The project delivered significant technical enhancements across data sharing, data quality, visualisation tools, and user experience, while establishing robust governance structures through the reformed NBN Atlas Stakeholder Advisory Group.
These achievements position the NBN Atlas to better serve its 335,000 annual users and support critical decision-making in conservation, policy, and ecological research across the UK.
Mike Prince, Senior Officer, Natural England said:
“There is a wealth of species data that has been, and continues to be, collected by hundreds of organisations and many thousands of individuals. The value of this can only fully be realised through collaboration and data sharing. The NCEA and Natural England have been delighted to support the NBN Trust with Atlas Accelerator to develop new functionality for the NBN Atlas and facilitate an overall increase in quality and quantity of FAIR data.”
Read the NBN Atlas Accelerator Project Report – March 2026
