Forward Look 2020 - 2025

Susan Davies, CEO, Scottish Seabird Centre.

We have been working with our Board of Trustees, staff, partners and stakeholders to develop a strategic view on what our priorities should be for 2020-2025. This planning comes at a time when global awareness of marine environments, the pressures these are under and the need to act is rapidly growing. 2020 is also our 20th anniversary and the Scottish Government’s Year of Coast and Waters and both provide a platform for telling a wider story about Scotland’s seas.

Our new organisational vision reflects our intention to extend our remit from a focus primarily on seabirds to one which covers Scotland’s seas and the diversity of amazing wildlife it supports in the broadest way. Our vision is “To help ensure that Scotland’s marine environment is healthy, wildlife-rich, valued and enjoyed by current and future generations”.

We have had conversations with a wide range of organisations and our own people about the type of organisation we will be in the future. This has led to us agreeing a set of organisational values that will underpin our overall approach for “Inspiring and educating people about the Scottish marine environment, motivating people to care for it and supporting conservation”. Our organisational values – Passionate, Inspiring, Innovative, Collaborative, Informed, and Trustworthy - will define the way we will engage with partners, visitors and each other.

We have settled on three programmes of work.

Conservation - We will continue efforts to build a compelling case for the protection and restoration of our marine environments and to showcase marine conservation best practice. This will see us developing further as a hub for projects that improve our understanding of Scotland’s marine environment; especially Scotland’s internationally important breeding seabird populations. Working with partners we will support practical conservation activities, such as control of invasive species impacting on coastal habitats and wildlife and building on the expertise we have developed through initiatives such as SOS Puffin.

SOS Puffin volunteers.

Education – We will build on our highly regarded educational programmes offering indoor learning opportunities (through our refurbished classroom, Discovery Experience and school workshops) and outdoor learning opportunities that are topical and aligned with the Curriculum for Excellence. Our emphasis will be on stretching our educational impact into secondary years and life-long learning opportunities in partnership with Universities and Colleges. We recognise the importance of ensuring that our educational offering is inclusive, so we will develop a new programme of marine-based outreach resources to reach new audiences through science festivals, local events, and disadvantaged groups in targeted areas of Scotland. Our innovative family-based science shows will continue and will tackle new themes to bring the issues affecting the marine environment to life.

Communities - We will work both with communities of place and interests. Our Centre is a fantastic resource that provides facilities that can be used with local partners in North Berwick and East Lothian for appropriately themed activities and events. We will also reach out to the marine science community so that they can use the assets we have in our Centre to communicate their science to a broader audience, helping them to increase the impact of their findings. With investment in our interactive camera technology, we will be able to develop partnerships which use this digital technology for research projects.

Supporting our work are our people (trustees, staff and volunteers), our physical assets (our Centre including the education classroom, and discovery areas) and our digital resources, including an expansion into virtual reality underwater experiences. We also need to ensure that our governance structures are modern and shaped to best support our charitable activities and that we develop a new, sustainable, finance model for the future. Whilst we will continue to offer a significant tourism offering from our Centre, in North Berwick, we will be developing partnership opportunities that extend the network of marine interpretation sites around Scotland.

“ We are excited about our plans for the next 5 years and look forward to continuing to work with a wider range of partners, our staff, volunteers, members and funders to realise our ambitious plans.”