Nominations for the 2016 UK awards to celebrate biological recording and information sharing are open.

These awards have been developed by the National Biodiversity Network, the National Forum for Biological Recording and the Biological Records Centre.

Following the success of last year’s awards, when we received 53 nominations overall, we are excited by the prospect of even more nominations for amazing people in 2016!

Award categories:
We have made one change to the awards, by adding in a separate group award, so there are now five categories:

* Gilbert White youth award for terrestrial and freshwater wildlife
* Gilbert White adult award for terrestrial and freshwater wildlife
* David Robertson youth award for marine and coastal wildlife
* David Robertson adult award for marine and coastal wildlife
* Group award

Nominations:
If you, or your organisation, know of any individuals or any groups of people that have made an outstanding contribution, make sure you nominate them for the relevant award.

The awards committee will consider the significance of the contribution (voluntary or otherwise) made to biological recording and/or improving our understanding of the UK’s biodiversity. This could include filling geographic or taxonomic gaps in our knowledge, encouraging and facilitating participation, verifying records, teaching or mentoring recorders, or creating and sharing tools and resources to support biological recording and increasing participation.

Please include as much relevant information as possible, on how your nominee is making a difference and the impact of their involvement in biological recording, to a maximum of 500 words.

You can nominate one person for different categories using the same form. If you wish to nominate more than one person or group please use a separate form for each nominee. Unfortunately, you can’t nominate yourself!

Nomination forms can be downloaded from the NBN website: http://nbn.org.uk/news/uk-awards-nominations-open/

The closing date is 31st July.

Please help to spread the word and let's make the 2016 Awards an even bigger success than last year!  If you use Twitter please use the #NBNAwards16

Thank you.