In this issue:

• Finalists announced – NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2026
• Introducing our new NBN Atlas support portal
• NBN Conference first speakers announced
• NBN Atlas increase to download limit
• NBN Forum update
• Countryside Jobs Service and the changes it has seen
• The work of a Forest Research entomology scientist
• iNaturalistUK Project of the Month

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The post Network News – September 2026 appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

How to search for help

Before submitting a ticket, you may find the answer to your question is already available in our Knowledge Base:

1. Enter your question or a few keywords into the search box
2. From the dropdown list, select the article that best matches your question
3. If you cannot find the information you are looking for, you can submit a ticket to ask us your question directly.

Tip: Try searching for a few keywords rather than typing out the whole question.

How to navigate the Knowledge base

If you prefer, you can also browse through all the different categories and articles:

1. Click on Knowledge base on the top of the page.
2. Scroll down through the various folders: Using the NBN Atlas, Share Data, Generalised Information, Videos… etc.
3. Click on the article to read it. Within the article you can see other suggested articles in right hand bar.

Tip: Some longer articles contain a table of contents to help you quickly find relevant information.

How to submit a ticket

If you cannot find the information you are looking for, or want to report an issue with the website, please contact us by submitting a ticket through the portal:

1. Click on submit a ticket in the upper-right corner
2. Enter your email address, subject heading and a description of the issue
3. Use the attachment option to send us any screenshots or photos to help us answer your question

Tip: You do not need a Freshdesk account to submit a ticket or view help articles, however having an account allows you to view and keep track of all your previously submitted tickets.

How to reply and track submitted tickets

1. You will receive a response from support@nbnatlas.freshdesk.com in your email inbox. You may want to check your spam folder just in case it gets directed there.
2. Choose to reply directly through your email inbox or through the portal
3. If you want to track your submitted tickets, first login to your account in the upper-right corner of the portal homepage (or create an account if you do not have one)
4. Click on ‘Tickets’ or ‘View all tickets’

Tip: Use the filter options on the right to sort tickets by status: All Tickets, Open or Pending, or Resolved or Closed.

We hope you find the new system easy to use and an efficient way to find answers to your queries. If you do have any problems, you can still email us at support@nbnatlas.org or data@nbnatlas.org as these will be forwarded to the new system. Or you can use our new email address support@nbnatlas.freshdesk.com

The post Introducing our new NBN Atlas support portal appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

Previously users could only download 500,000 records, but this has now increased to 1,500,000. We hope this will make accessing the records much easier and there is the potential to increase this limit over time.

When downloading records, please adhere to the licence conditions of the records. You can read more about data licences applied to records on the NBN Atlas here. This piece of work was made possible as part of the Accelerator 2 project, funded by Natural England. This project has now finished and several other features have been released as part of this project. A report will be shared in due course to highlight the other new features released.

The post NBN Atlas increase to download limit appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

UK BIOSCAN Partner Network is a UK-wide network, with the BIOSCAN project team based in Hinxton, Cambridgshire

What excites the group about recording wildlife and what motivates them to get involved?

“What excites us is being able to track thousands of species of insects across time and space in a way that simply wasn’t possible before. DNA based approaches to species identification makes this possible for species beyond those that are familiar and more straightforward to identify and record visually. Every insect we examine through the BIOSCAN project brings this thrill, and sites where species presence was thought to have been extremely well mapped are still yielding species new to them, and occasionally even new to the UK. The scale of what we are doing in terms of identification and recording is only possible thanks to two groups of people. Our volunteer partners out in the field are amazing and they include citizen scientists and retired volunteers to natural history societies, wildlife trusts, zoos, schools, farms, rewilding projects, universities, museums, and government agencies. Alongside them, at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, many people have invested hugely turning what the partners collect into species records at incredible scale. What motivates everyone involved is knowing their effort doesn’t stop at their own site: the records are open to everyone, feeding into the NBN Atlas, GBIF and the global effort to understand life on Earth.”

You can find out more about the work of the network on:

• LinkedIn 
• Bluesky
• Facebook
• Instagram

The post UK BIOSCAN Partner Network – NBN Group Award appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

Alan Wood is from Greenock, Renfrewshire (Inverclyde)

What is it that excites, motivates and inspires Alan to record?

“I have been passionate about recording since getting interested in natural history while at school in 1970’s, initially with a keen interest in birds. I was heavily involved in the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club Clyde Branch and was jointly responsible for organising various surveys over the years such as breeding Sand Martins, Rookeries, Corvid roosts, tetrad breeding birds atlas project and post-breeding waders. I also organized the local WeBS and Heronries counts for many years and assisted in organising the various national projects arranged by the BTO.

I have always been driven to record with a purpose, wishing to understand populations and distributions, what might limit them and why they change. Having seen species fortunes change in my lifetime I feel I have contributed in part to the record of some of these changes. When I started out, I read vague descriptions of how common some species were that had declined or been lost locally and wished there had been a better record of these. I determined that I would do my bit to put my data on the record so future naturalists would have a more complete record to work with. There is nothing more satisfying than a map with dots on it and detailed records behind each dot!

My main focus these days is fungi. I took up an interest in this under-appreciated group in 2016 and it quickly ‘mushroomed’ into an obsession. I am a regular contributor to the FRDBI, and it appears the most active in Scotland. While most people would associate fungi with the autumn, they are with us all year round although most of the ‘toadstool’ type are found in the autumn. I developed an all-inclusive approach to fungi and love the challenge of finding then almost anywhere at any time of year (I have even recorded them while out at night carrying out bat surveys). I am an active member of my local Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group and lead a few of the forays for the group each year. I have also presented a couple of talks to the group where I have demonstrated my approach to finding fungi. I am fortunate to work as an ecologist at the former ROF Bishopton, one of the largest brownfield regeneration sites in Europe. It is there that I developed my interest in fungi and from an initial list of 62 species provided by the local BSBI recorder during and ‘out of season’ survey prior to the redevelopment, the total species recorded now exceeds 860 with several new to Scotland among them. My favourite among them is perhaps Pluteus aurantiorugosus, the Flame Shield, found growing at the rotten base of a Wych Elm in July 2016 and still fruiting in the exact same location eleven years later. This record of longevity is another important aspect of recording.

Working in ecology I know only too well how important it is that things are recorded if we wish to care for them.”

The post Alan Wood – NBN Award for Terrestrial Wildlife Recording appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

Steve Atkins is from Rochdale, Greater Manchester

What is it that excites, motivates and inspires him to record?

“There are many things that excite me about recording wildlife. These include discovering a new species on my local patch, Watergrove Reservoir, the rarest being a broad-billed sandpiper found in May 2005 which at the time was the first for Greater Manchester until an old record from 1971 was reviewed and accepted by BBRC. Long-term monitoring (since 1993) of the same site, documenting trends, the arrival of new breeding species and losses.The impact of habitat creation (tree planting) has had on the numbers of willow warblers breeding at a site. Witnessing the start of species recovery after many years of decline e.g. twite in the South Pennines. Re-discovering a species after a 20-year absence, e.g. wall (Lasiommata mergera) found only last week in SD9015, my first sighting in this 1-km square since August 2006.”

“What motivates me? – again many things, including: Supporting the selection of Local Wildlife Sites, contributing to national datasets such as BTO Breeding Bird Survey (my first survey was in 1999), Heronry Census, Bird Atlas 2007-11 and WeBS.”

“Engaging, enthusing and supporting the personal development of new recorders which was a key aspect of my work at the Greater Manchester Local Record Centre from 2008 to 2022. Developing my ID skills and learning to identify new species.”

You can find out more about Steve on X – @RochdaleBirder

The post Steve Atkins – NBN Lifetime Achievement Award appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

“DASSH and the NBN: Enhancing Two-Way Marine Data Integration”

Abstract: The collaboration between DASSH and the NBN Trust to facilitate the two-way integration of marine data into both DASSH and the NBN Atlas and incorporating Marine Recorder Online.

Julie is Senior Data Officer at The UK Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (DASSH), The Marine Biological Association. Since 1884 The Marine Biological Association has driven scientific discovery through innovative technologies and data, informing conservation and policy and championing sustainable ocean stewardship. As Senior Data Officer at DASSH, Julie ensures the standardisation, quality assurance and long term preservation of marine biodiversity data and MEDIN Discovery metadata.

Social media handles:

• Facebook @DASSH
• Bluesky @dassh-at-the-mba.bsky.social

The post Julie Bunt – NBN Conference 2026 appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

In this issue:

• NBN Trust Vacancy – Head of Finance & Operations
• NBN Conference – open for bookings!
• NBN Forum – now and in the future
• NBN Trust Annual Impact Report 2025/26
• Please feedback on our Strategic Plans
• NBN Atlas data updates – July 2026
• Youth Climate and Nature Panel
• Scottish museums digitising 700,000 wildlife specimens
• The Wildlife Information Centre Vacancies
• Species Recovery Programme 2026-2029
• National Education Nature Park – July updates
• Field Mycology: online and Open Access
• Big Butterfly Count 2026
• Trees Outside Woodland Fund
• Grants of up to £100,000
• iNaturalistUK Project of the Month

Subscribe to our monthly Network News.

The post Network News – August 2026 appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

The post NBN Forum – now and in the future appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.

A word from our Chairperson, Pete Tomlin:

“At the NBN Trust…we are thinking carefully about what a more connected, interoperable, and agile Trust should look like, sitting at the centre of a network of services delivered with and for our stakeholders.

The Board’s focus is on supporting the Trust to stay trusted, relevant and resilient. The next phase will require careful choices, strong partnerships, and a sustainable operating model, but the need for the Trust’s work has never been clearer”.

The post NBN Trust Annual Impact Report 2025/26 appeared first on National Biodiversity Network.