About BRISC

© Andy Wakelin

  • BRISC is run by a committee of elected Members

  • BRISC provides a focus for biological recording in Scotland

  • BRISC organises a conference each year to bring the recording community together to discuss current issues

  • BRISC represents the interest of the Scottish recording community at the national level

  • BRISC advertises training days for recorders

  • BRISC produces publications relevant and useful to the recording community

  • BRISC has representation on NFBR

Projects

BRISC organises and manages many projects of value to the recording community in Scotland, including bursaries for taxonomic courses.

Bursaries

Since 2009, BRISC (Biological Recording in Scotland) and GNHS (Glasgow Natural History Society) have been offering bursaries towards attending a training course in natural history field studies. These bursaries are open to anyone living in Scotland who wants to improve their skills and contribute to biological recording.

From 2023 we are pleased to be able to increase our bursary offer to £400, up to £100 of which can go towards transport costs, to make it easier to attend courses. Find out more and download the application form on our Bursary page.

Grid reference reader

A free grid reference reader, the size and thickness of a credit card.

This product is helpful for accurately reading the grid reference of a site. It comes with two scales, the bigger for the 1:25,000 OS maps and the smaller for the 1:50,000 OS maps. To use it just place the reader on relevant 1km square, taking care to align the border of the reader's grid with the blue line of the square and the exact 6 figure reference becomes obvious. Remember to read the 'east-ing' before the 'north-ings'.

Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF)

At the AGM in 2008, the proposal of an e-petition was debated, together with a possible wording. With the approval of the membership, Craig Macadam took the petition forward.

Wording of the e-petition

“Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to establish integrated local and national structures for collecting, analysing and sharing biological data to inform decision making processes to benefit biodiversity."

See the text of the e-petition in PE1229

After receiving 718 signatures the petition was discussed by the Petitions Committee and following several meetings between the Committee and representatives of BRISC, a set of recommendations were put forward by the Science Group to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum (SBIF) was established in 2010.

All information about SBIF can now be found on the National Biodiversity Network's Scotland page. There is also a SBIF Blog.

The current committee

Jonathan Willet Membership Secretary, Treasurer, Chair (2000-2006, 2011-2025)
Jonathan first joined the Committee from 2000 to 2006 then took a break before becoming Chair from 2011 to 2015 and then Treasurer in 2017. In 2023 he again stepped up to be the BRISC Chair. Dragonflies are his main natural history interest, and he has been very involved in biological recording from the national to local level over the last 25 years.

Richard Weddle (2007-2025)
Richard has managed the GMBRC database for Glasgow Museums since the 1990s, having previously worked in data analysis and reporting for several large industrial and financial companies, though originally a research biochemist in the food industry. He is currently County Moth Recorder for Lanarkshire and Biodiversity Recorder for Glasgow Natural History Society, and records insects generally, particularly beetles and pollinating insects.

Louisa Maddison Minutes Secretary (2010-2025)
Louisa works in project development for an environmental regeneration charity, and carries out ecological surveys. She had a background working in biodiversity and nature conservation and is particularly interested in citizen science and invertebrates.

Kelly Ann Dempsey Membership Secretary (2016-2025)
Kelly Ann is a local government ecologist and delivers nature restoration projects in northeast Scotland. She works mainly in river catchment and coastal areas and has a personal interest in citizen science recording schemes and mammal surveying.

Sydney Gauld (2021-2025)
Sydney has had a longstanding interest in natural history. Having been a member of the Orkney Field Club since a child, and serving on the clubs committee for many years. Was until recently the county Lepidoptera recorder for Orkney for 32 years. He was also the manager of the Orkney Biodiversity Information and Records Centre till his retirement. He now concentrates on recording Lepidoptera and other wildlife in Aberdeenshire.

Robyn Haggard Website Manager (2021-2025)
Robyn is the Zoology Curator at Glasgow Museums and also manages the Glasgow Museums Biological Records Centre. Her interests include the history of biological recording and natural history collecting. 

Mike Rutherford (2022-2025)
Mike is the Curator of Zoology & Anatomy at the University of Glasgow Hunterian Museum. He has a wide range of biological recording experience including running bioblitz events and promoting the use of iNaturalist. Interests include camera trapping, marine recording and use of museum specimen records. 

Richard Smith (2022-2025)
Richard is retired after a career in ecology and countryside management, both in the public and private sectors. Latterly he was Team Leader for Biodiversity at Fife Council which included Fife Nature in the team. He continues to record across a wide range of fields almost on a daily basis.