The aim of this workshop, held on 4-5th December 2017, was to identify and/or design the funding mechanisms that will support our ‘minimum viable model’ in perpetuity.

It compared the funding level and viability of each possible mechanism for each stakeholder so that a preferred funding model for our biological recording infrastructure could determined and proposed as our vision for sustainable funding.

The proposed Funding model, and a transcript of the workshop discussions, are included in the workshop outputs document (available below).

Outputs from the SBIF Review Workshop on Funding [PDF, 76pp, 2.4MB]

Some important messages from this workshop were:

  1. To attract significant funding we must work together at every level (reaching out to the whole UK) to remove competition for funds and share costs and back office services across sectors while joining up data to maximise benefits and return on investment.
  2. We should make a bold request for funding. The status quo is not an option, we must ask for the full amount of investment that is needed to ensure that a properly functioning governance structure can be supported, so that the level of investment sought is significant enough to make it sufficiently beneficial and motivational for the change involved to be worthwhile.
  3. We recommend the adoption of a subscription model charging those who make academic or commercial use of the data and for those who have a requirement to demonstrate fulfilment of biodiversity duty (e.g. local authorities and farm businesses).
  4. We recommend that the biological recording infrastructure is defined as a beneficiary of environmental taxation(e.g. landfill tax).
  5. Proposals to increase regional and super partner resource are very welcome and timely.
  6. We will ensure that funding options incorporate a greater level of resource for overheads such as public liability insurance, advocacy and income generation, and for QA/verification, while clarifying what is existing spend/income and what is new.