Biodiversity Co-ordinator & Principal Curator Botany

Amgueddfa Cymru is committed to safeguarding and restoring nature and our environment. We have the largest and most comprehensive collection of Welsh geology, zoology and botany specimens in the world, and this provides a unique record of the natural history of Wales, charting evolutionary and environmental change. The museum is also home to Welsh National Herbarium which contains botanical specimens from Wales and across the world, including the British Bryophyte Society Collection. This is of international importance and represents over 300 years of collecting. These collections underpin our understanding, maintenance and enhancement of biodiversity in Wales and contribute to global research in taxonomy.

All of our collections belong to the people of Wales, and we want to find new ways in which we can make them a relevant and useful resource for everyone to explore and enjoy.
Amgueddfa Cymru has 8 sites across the whole of Wales, each with its distinctive natural characteristics. This role will support the development of a better understanding of these sites and seek to engage with a range of communities in exploring bio-diversity and how we can work together to protect and restore nature.

What you’ll do…
You will:
• Play a strategic role in delivering the Museum’s goal to safeguard and increase biodiversity across the museum sites.
• Develop wider participatory approach to undertaking biodiversity surveys of the sites.
• Promote, and co-ordinate biodiversity data within the Museum and play an active role in sharing this data externally.
• Provide expertise in lower plants, to develop, promote and increase access to the collection through research and online presence
• Explore and develop new ways to digitize the collection which will make the collection accessible to a range of audiences.
• Undertake research focused on taxonomy, to support understanding and monitoring of environmental change in Wales.
• Play an active role in the Natural Sciences related events and learning programmes.
• Supervise student projects to enthuse and support young scientists in Wales.
Reporting currently to the Head of Natural Sciences

What you’ll achieve…
• Develop and enhance plans for biodiversity across the Museum sites.
• Raising awareness of the biodiversity of our sites with the public and museum staff.
• Greater participation in biodiversity activities from the public and communities close to our sites.
• Effective communication and stronger collaboration with our partners and professional bodies working to protect the wildlife of Wales.
• Sharing the botany collection with the people of Wales digitally and through events, social media and other initiatives.
• Development and promotion of the lower plant collection to support its wider use.
• An active research programme, which contributes to increased knowledge of the biodiversity of Wales to support safeguarding the environment.
• Support for the next generation of scientists in Wales by supervising student projects and volunteers.

How you’ll achieve this…
• Co-ordinate a team to deliver our programme of biodiversity audits across all museum sites to capture information on the current ecological situation.
• Promote and communicate the results of the surveys and use them to develop potential enhancements and actions plans.
• Develop a participatory element to the biodiversity surveys with partners and the public.
• Write reports to convey the survey results to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Represent and play a leading role on wider Museum management teams concerning biodiversity, including the Sustainability Compliance Group.
• Take part in Natural Science digitisation projects enabling an online presence of the botany collections leading to greater access, enjoyment and understanding.
• Develop the lower plant collection through curation of existing and new material.
• Develop a research profile, supported by external funding, focused on Welsh biodiversity. This should include a strong participatory element.
• Participate in outward facing events to promote work of the museum e.g. open days, behind the scenes events, also contribute to social media and blogs.
• Supervise and mentor undergraduate and PhD student projects.
• Devise and support volunteer projects.