The BES held a highly successful reception at ‘Our Dynamic Earth’ in Edinburgh on Thursday 8 October to celebrate both the work of the BES’s members in Scotland and the first time the BES Public and Policy Committee has held a meeting north of the border.

The reception also marked the end of a two-day KnowledgeScotland meeting; a partnership event between major Scottish research institutes and the Scottish Government. From 7 – 8 October ecological researchers and policy-makers gathered at Our Dynamic Earth to consider the evolution of three cross-cutting themes: ‘Responding to Climate Change’; ‘Protecting Biodiversity’ and ‘Environmental, Social and Economic Sustainability of Rural Scotland’.

The Minister for the Environment at the Scottish Government, Roseanna Cunningham, joined us at the reception, where short speeches from Professor Charles Godfray, President of the BES, and Professor Maggie Gill, Chief Scientific Adviser for Rural Affairs and Environment to the Scottish Government, informed ecologists and policy-makers alike.

The event provided a fantastic opportunity for networking between BES members in Scotland and policy-makers, and we hope that much progress will be made with newly-established contacts in the near future.