This guidance was based on almost four years of work by the Linking LRCs project. The Wildlife Trusts led this project, on behalf of the NBN consortium, which was funded by Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage, The Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust and The Wildlife Trusts.

The NBN South West Pilot Project was initiated in April 2001 and completed in March 2003. The Project, centred on the South West Government Region, was led by English Nature but comprised a wider partnership including six Local Record Centres, Environment Agency, JNCC, RSPB, Butterfly Conservation, Herpetological Conservation Trust, Marine Biological Association and the National Trust. Several other partners engaged in the project less formally including Defra, the SW Regional Biodiversity Partnership, Regional Observatory and LBAP groups.

The aims of the Project were to test whether the National Biodiversity Network could be effectively employed at regional scale to deliver information products and services of value to the project partnership. If so this would provide a basis for developing the network nationally. A key aim of the Project was to consider the role of Local Record Centres (LRCs) in the network.  Downloadable as a WIndows help file:

Just Ecology were contracted by English Nature, on behalf of the Statutory Agencies, National Biodiversity Network (NBN) and National Federation for Biological Recording (NFBR), to conduct a review of LRCs in the UK to assess the factors preventing or supporting the establishment of LRCs. A selection of 58 organisations were interviewed using a standard questionnaire covering LRC sustainability, the ability of LRCs to work within NBN and their capacity to conform to the NBN Data Exchange Principles.