26 Feb 2024
by Andy Symonds

Enhancing biodiversity monitoring and people’s connection with nature: The Natural History Museum's Data Ecosystem

As a data scientist passionate about the climate, I was privileged to be part of a Thoughtworks team working alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a new data platform for the Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Project. The Data Ecosystem will help researchers build a deeper understanding of the UK’s urban biodiversity, including its composition, how it relates to environmental conditions and how it responds to direct conservation action

Fighting Climate Change- Effective Stewardship of the Environment

As a data scientist passionate about the climate, I was privileged to be part of a Thoughtworks team working alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a new data platform for the Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Project. The Data Ecosystem will help researchers build a deeper understanding of the UK’s urban biodiversity, including its composition, how it relates to environmental conditions and how it responds to direct conservation action.  

As part of the project, Thoughtworks was selected by the Natural History Museum to develop the new biodiversity and environmental monitoring Data Ecosystem that will capture, share and interpret urban nature data for different audiences. This platform will help transform the Museum’s scientific research and community science capabilities by bringing together a broad range of UK biodiversity and environmental data types in one place for the first time, encouraging more integrated cross-disciplinary research programmes. 

The Museum will make the Data Ecosystem available to its researchers at the Museum’s, as well as researchers at the Museum’s partner institutes across the UK. Scientists will be able to study biodiversity data types alongside environmental data such as soil and atmospheric chemistry or noise pollution, rapidly and accurately. This, combined with access to the Museum’s 28 years of historical wildlife data from their South Kensington gardens, will build an increasingly detailed picture of biodiversity functioning and health and is expected to open up large-scale opportunities for research and nature positive action. The intention, over time, is to capture all new UK biodiversity and environmental data from Natural History Museum projects and create a central hub for the UK’s biodiversity data. 

As Richard Hinton, CIO, Natural History Museum said: "The home to more than 80 million specimens - and with more than five million visitors annually - the Natural History Museum is also a center of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. The ‘Urban Nature Project’ gives us the opportunity, through data, to advance research, to support education and help people to reassess humanity's impact on UK biodiversity.” 

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https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/social-change/natural-history-museums-data-ecosystem?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social-organic&utm_campaign=nhm-blog_2024-02&gh_src=463a2f181us

Visual and environmental DNA-based observations of plants and wildlife, as well as environmental and acoustic monitoring data from a high spatial resolution sensor network in the Museum’s gardens will be curated and combined within the Data Ecosystem. The richness of data will enable the Museum’s scientists to build scientific evidence of the impacts that habitat creation, restoration, and translocation have on the UK’s urban wildlife, from grassland to pond habitats. 

The Data Ecosystem is also designed to enable the Museum’s globally-recognised Community Science Programme, by providing a platform through which individuals, community groups and schools can join, contribute to and steer world-class research relating to their local wildlife and environment by inputting data. 


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Heather Cover-Kus

Heather Cover-Kus

Head of Central Government Programme, techUK

Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.

Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat.  She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.

Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.

Email:
[email protected]
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cover-kus-ba636538

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Ellie Huckle

Ellie Huckle

Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK

Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.

The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!

Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.

When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!

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Annie Collings

Annie Collings

Programme Manager, Cyber Security and Central Government, techUK

Annie joined techUK as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023. In this role, she supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector.

Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.

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Ella Gago-Brookes

Ella Gago-Brookes

Team Assistant, Markets, techUK

Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.  

Before joining the team, she was working at the Magistrates' Courts in legal administration and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2022.  Ella attained an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and a master's degree in International Relations and Security Studies, with a particular interest in studying asylum rights and gendered violence.  

In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, watching true crime documentaries, travelling, and making her best attempts to become a better cook.  

Email:
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Authors

Andy Symonds

Andy Symonds

Data Scientist, Thoughtworks