Do you have the skills, experience, and passion to help guide a UK-wide environmental charity tackle the nature emergency using the power of data?
Would you be excited to join the board of trustees as we prepare for a full strategy refresh? The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) is looking to recruit Trustees to join our Board.
About the NBN Trust: National Biodiversity Network Trust
Over the past 26 years, the NBN Trust has fundamentally changed how biodiversity evidence is shared and used in the UK. What began as a pioneering, but relatively small data resource – fewer than 15 million species records – has grown into a world leading national infrastructure. More than 385 million records are now openly available through the NBN Atlas, our data portal, which is one of the world’s largest publicly accessible sources of biodiversity data, and is relied upon by conservationists, researchers, and educators across the UK and beyond.
This scale matters because better data leads to better decisions and crucially, this data is not just collected – it is used. With billions of records downloaded and shared globally, NBN Atlas data informs real-world decisions, from local conservation action to national policy and international research. As a trusted national platform, it also connects local recording to global initiatives such as GBIF: Global Biodiversity Information Facility, ensuring UK biodiversity data contributes to tackling worldwide environmental challenges. In short, the NBN Trust has turned biodiversity data into a critical national asset, powering evidence-based action to protect and restore nature.
The numbers tell a powerful story of an unprecedented expansion of ecological knowledge. But it is the collective effort behind this that has created a truly collaborative movement for open data. Much of the data we share is created by the UK’s remarkable community of volunteer wildlife recorders. We make sure that all their hard work has the greatest possible impact for nature as we work together through the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) – the UK’s largest partnership for nature.
Becoming a Trustee
We’re passionate about making nature conservation accessible to everyone, and we encourage applications from people from all backgrounds, including those that are under-represented in the environmental field.
As a Trustee, you’ll play a key role in supporting the NBN Trust’s mission by offering strategic guidance, oversight and specialist insight. Trustees share collective responsibility for ensuring the charity is well-governed, financially sustainable and operating in line with its charitable objectives.
Trustees are also responsible for meeting the legal duties set out by the Charity Commission, which include:
- Ensuring the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit
- Complying with the charity’s governing document and the law
- Acting in the charity’s best interests
- Managing the charity’s resources responsibly
- Acting with reasonable care and skill
- Ensuring the charity is accountable
Trustees provide strategic direction, oversee performance and risk, and support the Chief Executive and staff team in achieving impact. While the role is non-executive, Trustees are expected to ask constructive questions, offer informed challenge, and act as ambassadors for the NBN Trust and its values.
You’ll play a key role in supporting the NBN Trust’s mission by offering strategic guidance, oversight and specialist insight.
Key Information
Time Commitment:
- Approximately 7 -8 days per year, including attendance at four Board meetings, committee meetings, our annual conference and team workday as well as time for reading papers.
- Board meetings are usually held in person at an accessible venue in London.. Occasionally, board meetings are held fully online using MS Teams. Board meetings take place quarterly, four times a year, between 11am-3pm.
- Trustees are expected to sit on one of our committees. Committee meetings are usually held online each quarter.
- Trustees are appointed for a three-year term, with the option to renew for one further term.
- Applicants must currently reside in the UK.
- All Trustee roles are voluntary, with reasonable expenses such as travel reimbursed by the Trust.
How to Apply
For more details, please see the Trustee pack.
Read the full details for this role and how to apply.
Applications are welcome on a rolling basis, with no closing date. We will contact all suitable applicants to arrange interviews.