Frequently Asked Questions

The Environmental Records Information Centre (ERIC) North East works closely with wildlife recording groups and individuals to collate as much information as possible on important species, habitats and sites in the region. This data is used to inform those working in wildlife conservation, planning and the voluntary recording community when they make decisions about the environment. ERIC North East works with hard-working recorders, sourcing data which is not easily accessible and helping to digitise data to make it useable. It also aims to encourage more people to get involved with wildlife recording by raising awareness of local and regional voluntary recording groups.

ERIC North East evolved from the Exploring Your Environment (EYE) Project and is hosted in the Great North Museum: Hancock. It is governed by an independent Board, made up of a range of stakeholders including the voluntary recording community. ERIC North East manages a recording portal website which is designed to allow the public to record their wildlife sightings across the region.

The majority of counties and regions in Great Britain have record centres. Up until now, the North East did not have one, which proved a major problem for anyone who needed access to up-to-date data for their work, whether for biodiversity conservation, planning decisions, to inform development or for academic and voluntary research. In addition, because existing data management has been patchy, lots of data exists in a format that cannot be easily used. At the same time, many recording groups, recorders and organisations have been collating and managing some very good data. However, people who need access to data normally have to go to multiple sources, all with different systems, which is a time consuming and difficult task. As a result, they have tended to go to only one or two sources, the result of which means that the data is incomplete. Incomplete data means that wildlife conservation decisions are being made without the full range of information.

In a number of ways:

• Many recorders and recording groups manage their own database for the taxa groups they are interested in. Data sharing is a two-way process: any relevant data from ERIC North East would also be shared with you, provided that permissions exist from the original data supplier. This would augment your own databases and result in everyone being better informed.
• Support with usage of recording and mapping software (Recorder, MapMate, QGIS) including assistance with installation, basic training and basic technical support.
• Digitisation or assistance with the digitisation of paper data (including some data held within museum collections).
• Provision of distribution maps for atlases or to identify gaps in recording.
• Invitations to recording events: including an annual recording conference, bioblitz events, etc.
• Promotion through the website and in the Natural Northumbria Gallery in the Great North Museum: Hancock.

Of course, the most obvious benefit is that by working in partnership and sharing data, wildlife records will be much more accessible for conservation purposes. Without an up-to-date, centralised system for biodiversity data, it is impossible for anyone to know how the natural environment is changing. Limited evidence means limited money for wildlife conservation, as there is incomplete baseline data to prove that the funding is needed.

The records are stored in a password-protected database called Recorder 6, which only ERIC North East staff have access to. Recorder 6 is held on a secure server managed by Newcastle City Council, and is backed up daily.

Our partners and other biodiversity professionals have helped us to develop a list of sensitive species. Records of these species are managed with particular caution, and are only passed on to bona-fide users who have a valid reason for accessing the data: for example Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the Wildlife Trusts. If necessary, we reduce the resolution of records or will contact you for your permission to pass the records on. You can use the Data Sharing Agreement to reiterate how you would like sensitive records to be managed.

We encourage data owners to complete a Data Sharing Agreement, which you can use to set out exactly how you would like us to manage your records, and what we can and cannot do with them. We always respect the wishes of data suppliers, and will stop using your data if you wish us to do so.

You will always retain ownership of your data: ERIC North East merely acts as a custodian. With your permission, your name will appear as the ‘Observer’ alongside each record. If we receive a query about a record which we are unable to answer, we will contact you for clarification. However, we will not pass on your contact details to anyone unless you expressly tell us to do so, for reasons of personal data protection.

In any report that we prepare, each record has a column which lists which dataset it has come from. Although we will not automatically pass personal contact details on, if you are a specialist group or organisation, the recipient of the report will be able to contact your group or organisation for advice. ERIC North East will also signpost third parties to your group or organisation for contextual advice.

This is not a problem. As the owner of the data, you can set out who ERIC North East can or cannot grant access to. You can do this through the Data Sharing Agreement, which you complete before the data sharing process takes place. We would encourage you to trust that we will only share your data with recognised organisations and individuals, but we will respect and adhere to any regulations you place upon your data.

We upload as much data as possible to the NBN Atlas. This is a national web portal run by the National Biodiversity Network, which aims to hold as much biodiversity data as possible so it can be quickly and easily accessed to understand the distribution of particular species in the UK. Individual records, covering plants, mammals, birds and invertebrates, are stored on the NBN Atlas and these can then be displayed on a map of the UK in a number of different ways. All data with permission for upload by ERIC North East on the Atlas is displayed at a 10km square resolution. Users must contact ERIC NE for more detailed information.

It is more beneficial to wildlife conservation if as much data as possible is made accessible on the Atlas. However, again, we will only upload records onto the Atlas with your permission, and you can set out any restrictions in the Data Sharing Agreement.

Of course; it is entirely up to you who you share your data with. We suggest it’s best to submit your data through a single preferred route to avoid duplication.

Duplication is a problem we have to continuously monitor, as many different individual recorders and recording groups share their records with us. Occasionally we receive the same dataset or record more than once, from different sources. We use a variety of different strategies to identify possible areas of duplication and ensure our database is as duplication-free as possible:

• We log each survey or dataset we receive and ensure we hold metadata telling us who commissioned the survey, when, why, and who else holds a copy of it.
• We keep up regular communication with data owners and ask that they let us know if there is a possibility we will receive the records from elsewhere.
• We store datasets as separate surveys in our Recorder database, allowing us to easily identify if we already hold data from that provider.
• When preparing data for entry into the database or extract information for a report we use tools in Excel to check for duplicates.

The data provided by ERIC North East to third parties represents the data available at the time of the request. The data provided does not necessarily represent all extant data for a given area, nor should the absence of data be interpreted as indicative of the absence of a given species or habitat. It is vitally important that a lack of records for particular sites or species on our system does not result in decisions being made on that basis.

We always ensure that third parties are aware of this, and we also recommend they contact other recording groups and societies for additional data, particularly if we do not hold copies of that group’s records.