Bess Science Plan
The BESS Science Plan sets out the background to the setting up of BESS and its role of bringing together researchers from different sub‐disciplines within the natural sciences with researchers from the social sciences to create a new interdisciplinary biodiversity science community. It describes the Research Programme Goals and the delivery of these through different research themes.
BESS Implementation Plan
This plan describes the implementation of the main deliverables in the six-year research programme and the mechanisms for exploitation of the knowledge gained in these areas. The BESS programme informed policy and societal need for a greater understanding of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem service sustainability.
BESS Engagement Strategy
The purpose of this Strategy was to ensure that the BESS programme had a significant influence on policy and practice, both nationally and internationally. The Strategy identifies the key messages and desired outcomes of communications with the BESS programme, and provides the guidelines through which these can be achieved. The Strategy provided the background to enable participants in the BESS programme to engage with and promote BESS science to various audiences within and beyond the scientific research community in such a way that is relevant and beneficial in terms of delivering value to society.
BESS Engagement Implementation Plan
The BESS Implementation Plan was designed to complement, add detail and extend the work as outlined in the BESS Engagement Strategy. The aim of the Implementation Plan was to give further detail on how the BESS directorate and individual project teams communicated with different stakeholders and how Knowledge Exchange (KE) was facilitated to maximise impact of the programme. The plan also gives information on how this impact was measured, recorded and evaluated, at both project and programme levels.
BESS Engagement Implementation Plan
BESS Data Strategy
This document provided guidance to all research projects operating under the NERC funded BESS programme regarding data management throughout the life of the project and beyond. Each project was expected to collect and archive data in accordance with this Data Management Strategy and work with the BESS Directorate and the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) to ensure that data management within the BESS programmes was carried out in accordance with best practice.
BESS Guide to Good Practice in the Field and Health and Safety
The purpose of this note was to outline the procedures for accessing field sites safely and in a way that is respectful of the landowners and the ecological integrity of the sites. BESS sought to foster good relations with all land owners involved in the programme. The information provided is not exhaustive and is not meant to substitute for an institution’s own guidelines and documents. Because of the varied nature of fieldwork it is not possible to cover every circumstance and those with management responsibility for students/ researchers must consult with their Departmental Safety Adviser with a view to ensuring that fieldwork is carried out safely.
BESS Guide to Good Practice in the Field and Health and Safety
