The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) is thrilled to announce a new partnership with IQUW Group, who will be a headline corporate partner in 2025.
IQUW Group, a leading provider of property, specialty insurance, and reinsurance, stands for “Intelligent Underwriting”, a name that reflects its data-driven, automated approach to better underwriting decisions.
The partnership was born out of IQUW Group employees’ strong desire to support a charity involved with improving and restoring biodiversity and the NBN Trust was identified as a perfect fit.
Corporate partnerships like this are vital to the NBN Trust’s mission of “making data work for nature”, helping to amplify the charity’s impact by providing crucial funding and support. In its engagement with IQUW Group, the NBN Trust was impressed not only by the company’s sustainability goals and commitment to reducing environmental impact but also by its people-focused culture and desire to get staff actively involved in supporting nature, especially through wildlife recording initiatives.
About the NBN Trust
The NBN Trust plays a crucial role in the UK’s nature recovery efforts by bringing together biodiversity data from across the country and making it available to inform environmental decision-making. Acting as a bridge between those who collect biodiversity information and those who use it, the NBN Trust ensures that data doesn’t remain hidden or unused.
At the heart of its work is the NBN Atlas – the UK’s largest publicly accessible biodiversity database, which holds over 300 million records of more than 51,000 UK species. This vital resource is central to conservation efforts, enabling better planning, action, and understanding of the natural world.
Working in partnership with over 200 organisations, the NBN Trust creates a nationwide network of passionate individuals and groups who care deeply about wildlife and the power of data to drive positive change.
Why IQUW Group Chose to Partner with NBN Trust
IQUW Group was motivated to partner with the NBN Trust not only to strengthen its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments but also to provide meaningful engagement opportunities for its staff. These include potential volunteer activities, biodiversity data collection, and contributing to citizen science projects that support nature’s recovery.
While some biodiversity data is gathered by professional ecologists, most of it comes from a vast and dedicated community of volunteer wildlife recorders, ranging from beginners to highly experienced experts. These citizen scientists are essential to the UK’s biodiversity knowledge base. With growing recognition of their value, participation is being boosted by platforms like iNaturalistUK, iRecord, iSpot and events such as the City Nature Challenge.
By supporting the NBN Trust, IQUW Group is helping to promote wider participation as the partnership aims to encourage more people – especially IQUW Group employees – to connect with nature and contribute to its recovery through wildlife recording.
Brian Chadwick, IQUW Group Strategy Lead said:
“Partnering with the NBN Trust is about empowering people with the data they need to make a tangible difference for nature. At IQUW Group, we believe data and technology can drive better decisions. Supporting the NBN Trust allows us to help biodiversity thrive across the UK.”
Mel Hardie, Interim CEO, NBN Trust said:
“We’re thrilled to partner with IQUW Group and welcome them as a headline corporate partner. As a data-driven organisation themselves, they recognise the critical role of high-quality biodiversity information, not only for sound environmental decision-making, but also for building resilience in the face of environmental change.
This partnership exemplifies our mission of ‘making data work for nature’ – bringing together like-minded organisations to improve and restore biodiversity through robust, accessible data. Corporate support like IQUW Group’s is vital to the NBN Trust’s mission. It provides the crucial funding and support that amplifies our impact, enabling us to expand our reach and enhance the tools that make biodiversity data accessible to everyone who needs it.”
The NBN Trust would like to give huge thanks to IQUW Group. Together we’re making data work for nature and looking forward to an exciting and impactful year ahead!
View IQUW’s great announcement video*.
*You might spot an error in our narrative – there are actually more than 300 million species occurrence records on the NBN Atlas, so very many more than the 3 million we mention! Why not take a look at the NBN Atlas and delve into the records we hold.
IQUW Group is an insurance business comprised of two Lloyd’s of London syndicates; ERS, the UK’s largest specialist motor insurer at Lloyd’s, and IQUW which consists of a global Property and Specialty insurer based in London and a Bermuda based reinsurance platform.