JNCC has been tasked with establishing the Seabird Conservation UK Advisory Science Forum (SCUAS), to discuss, highlight and prioritise key evidence needs within applied seabird conservation science at a UK scale.
SMEEF provided a grant for the inaugural meeting of SCUAS on the 26th November 2025 in Edinburgh, supporting the non-government delegate travel and accommodation costs and the catering on the day of the workshop.
The event brought together 19 members across a variety of organisations involved in seabird conservation science and implementation. Discussions evolved around the main pressures facing UK seabird populations, species and family specific pressures and clear knowledge gaps present, prioritised into 3 categories:
– How (orange votes) = good idea but current evidence/knowledge/technology needs to improve before we can tackle such a question (one for later)
– Now (green votes) = these ideas are ‘easy wins’ doable with the data/evidence knowledge already in circulation, but less impact compared to below.
– Wow (purple votes) = these are ideas that, if answered, would have a major impact on seabird conservation and is achievable with the data/knowledge modelling etc already in circulation.
The full JNCC workshop is soon to be published on the JNCC website.
In 2025 SMEEF was able to provide a grant of £1,712 to support this work using resources donated to SMEEF by businesses.