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The work of The Food and Environment Research Agency’s (Fera) knowledge management team has won the prestigious 2009 Whitehall & Westminster World Civil Service Award for Knowledge Management and Analysis. The team from Fera, one of only three short listed from across the Civil Service, were chosen for their innovative work on BeeBase, a live on-line database used by beekeepers and the National Bee Unit (NBU) to manage valuable data and information on bee health across England and Wales.

Fera is the home of the NBU, which delivers the Bee Health Programmes on behalf of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in England & Wales.

Much of the NBU’s work depends on collecting and storing information relevant to individual beekeepers from its programme of apiary inspections, diagnosis, research, development and training. The NBU provides expert advice and technical consultancy services on bee health to government departments, beekeepers and industry.

To deal with this data more effectively, a website was set up in 2005 by Fera specialists, and its continued development and maintenance is done in conjunction with the NBU. For the first time it has allowed beekeepers to access their own apiary, diagnostic histories and details over the web. It provides information on the functional activities of the NBU, legislation, pests and diseases including their recognition and control, interactive maps, current research areas, publications, advisory leaflets and key contacts. Beekeepers can register and can request a free apiary visit from their local inspector who will provide any help and advice they need. Inspectors use BeeBase to maximise their efficiency and effectiveness, using the information to home in on apiaries most at risk of pests or diseases. They can search the database and create, update or edit certain records.

Fera’s Miles Thomas, Head of the Knowledge Management Team, said: ’The judges received over 800 nominations and the standard was high across the board, so this is a really great achievement, and we’re understandably very proud. When you consider all that BeeBase can do along with the disease surveillance program in place, we believe we’ve helped to create something truly unique. We don’t know of any other country in the world that offers their beekeepers the service that beekeepers in England and Wales receive.’

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