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)
  • Josh Keenan (BBD project) and Tony Ross (Accelerator project) joined the team as Full Stack Developers
  • 21 November – NBN Conference held at Merseyside maritime Museum, Liverpool. More than 160 delegates attended. Professor Miles Richardson delivered the Sir John Burnett Memorial Medal and Andy Cotgreave gave the keynote address.
  • The NBN John Sawyer Open Data Award was given to the Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording Scheme (Shieldbugs & allied species)
  • Winners and Highly Commended nominees announced in the 2024 NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording.