Invitation to apply for partnership funding:

Fund for biological recording in the voluntary sector.

Natural England are managing a fund, on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to increase the quality and relevance of biodiversity data available to national and local users, to support decision making, research and conservation planning.  The fund will support a series of partner projects to improve data management, pilot new approaches to voluntary recording, increase investment in local record centres and develop recorder skills, capacity and collaboration within the recording community.

The first phase of the Fund will extend until March 2014, with annual invitation to apply for specified elements.  The current invitation covers the period up until 31st March 2012 and a more comprehensive programme will be produced for April 2012 – March 2014 in due course.

For the first phase of the Fund, applications are sought for work themes described below. The closing date is 24th February 2012. 

We invite applications for funding for a small number of projects between £4,000 and £9,000  to support projects that will deliver one or more of the following by  March 2012:

1.     Increasing the capacity and number of volunteer recorders, especially for under-recorded groups such as non-vascular plants and invertebrates;

2.     Improving biodiversity/species data capture and data management;

3.     Developing taxon validation and verification capacity within Local Record Centres and National Schemes and Societies to support on-line recording;

Excludes: Marketing activities like designing, branding & printing brochures and other publications; events like conferences and exhibitions; website development; Public relations (PR) or advertising activities.

Bids will be assessed against the following criteria:

·         A demonstrated commitment from funding beneficiaries to participate in focused recording and to make data available.

·         Evidence of an increase in the number and availability of records through the NBN Gateway;

·         Illustrates how funding will provide a sustainable way of continuing support for volunteers;

·         Demonstrates contribution (time, money etc) partner themselves will be providing to any project receiving money from this fund;

·         Focus on under-recorded taxa;

·         Clear milestones which indicate a measure of the benefits of this funding e.g. X new volunteers trained in taxon group X;  X new recorder trainers trained in X ,  data validation skills increased in X volunteers; provided equipment & helped X more recorders be trained  or have equipment to complete more assessments etc

Timescales:

Applications to be submitted by February 24th 2012

Successful bids to be confirmed  by  2nd March 2012

Invoice for payment required by 15 March 2012

Bids are to sent to: Integrated.Monitoring@naturalengland.org.uk

Contact point in Natural England:  keith.porter@naturalengland.org.uk  

Tom has been in post for a couple of weeks now and is starting to get to grips with and plan some of the important tasks that lay ahead of him over the next couple of years.

Some of the key parts of his initial workplan:

• Developing policies & procedures for how ALERC functions.  This includes how it consults with membership & responds to consultations, what its priorities are, what is spends money on.
• Pulling together a database of what technologies & tools LRCs have, in an attempt to prevent repeated wheel-reinvention.
• Reviewing & developing the ALERC LRC accreditation criteria & documentation.
• Rolling out Accreditation to wider ALERC members

I'm sure Tom has probably heard from a few of you already, but he is happy to hear from ALERC members and non-member LRCs.  Tom will be attending the next Director's meeting in Birmingham on 15th February and further discussion will take place then about the shape of his workplan for the coming year.

Mark

ALERC is pleased to announce that it has appointed the first National Coordinator.  Tom Hunt, currently the Records Officer at rECOrd - The Local Biological Records Centre serving Cheshire, Halton Warrington and The Wirral, has been appointed to the post.  

Tom will start in his new role on Jauary 18th 2012

As posted by Teresa on the ALERC Forum, Paula Lightfoot of NBN has asked us to publicise the following funding opportunity:

"This is an opportunity for English LRCs to apply for funding to deliver training to data providers, specifically aimed at encouraging the use of online recording.  We would like to receive proposals from:

•    LRCs who are already running an online recording scheme and would like to deliver training to increase participation in the scheme by biological recorders in the voluntary, commercial, academic or public sectors.  
•    LRCs who are planning to set up an online recording scheme and would like to run a workshop or other kind of training to raise awareness of the benefits of online recording and gather feedback and commitments to engage (e.g. by providing verification support) before the scheme goes ‘live’.

The training must be delivered by the end of March 2012 and the deadline for applications is the 12th January.  As a guideline we’re suggesting up to £1,000 per proposal, but we will consider larger contributions if it is justified by the scope of the proposal.  As this is funded under the Defra/NBN contract it is only available for English LRCs, unfortunately."

Further details and an application form can be downloaded below.

Mark

ALERC are currently seeking applications to fill the role of ALERC National Coordinator.  This is an exciting opportunity to build on ALERC's achievements and to play a key role in driving forward the Association's work on the promotion of professional standards in biodiversity data management and use.

For more information go to our Job Vacancy page.

The new ALERC website is now live.  We have initially gone for a 'soft launch' so we can begin using the site whilst editors of individual pages are identified and appointed.  The content of the site can then be maintained and developed to ensure it is kept up to date.

If you think you would like to help ALERC by becoming an editor please contact Mark.  We will be discussing this at the next Directors meeting on December 13th.

Mark 

The new ALERC site is under construction.  We are hoping that the new site will be ready to launch at the Conference in September 2011.

Mark