Small Grants Scheme

Background

Twenty per cent of the income that HBIC receives for providing a data enquiry service to commercial organisations goes towards supporting the recording activities of the species recording groups who supply HBIC annually with copies of data. Some of this income is rolled forward together with royalties or other income received from species publications. The potential total amount available per year for small grants is around £1000 to £2000.

Bids can be made by groups and individuals from the recording community to support recording activities, and by those who improve the efficiency of data management and improve accessibility to their data. The main objective of the fund is therefore to increase the amount of data available to the wider HBIC Partnership.

The funding can be used towards :

• digitising paper records - priority given to recent data & under-represented taxa

• purchase of data management tools, including upgrading or new hard/software

• cost of consultants used to assist with data translation

• publication of atlases and checklists

• field survey equipment

• promotional activities to encourage greater recording/increase capacity

Submitting bids

Recording Groups or individuals are invited to submit bids which should consist of a brief summary of how the funding would be spent towards meeting the above objectives and the timescale involved using the Grant Scheme Form  141kb. Only one bid is allowed per species recording group/individual per year. Bids will be assessed by the HBIC Steering Group as to their value for money and effectiveness towards increasing the amount of data available.

The deadline for the next round will be the 24th February 2012. The maximum amount per bid will be £500 (in the first instance). Please send your submissions to enquiries.hbic@hants.gov.uk clearly stating "Supporting Local Recording Fund” in the subject or text.