We would like to thank all those who participated the first Natural Heritage Research & Development conference, including delegates, speakers and chairpeople. The conference was held in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast on April 16th 2008 and the programme (.PDF 105Kb) can be downloaded here.  

The aims of the conference were:

• to highlight the variety of research activities that we are involved in
• to disseminate the results of a cross-section of this research
• to seek the views of delegates on the direction of our future research

Environment Minister Arlene Foster gave the opening address which highlighted the importance of research in making evidence-based decisions and outlined the research & development activities we are involved in. This was followed by 11 presentations from partner organisations, contractors and NIEA staff which provided a fascinating insight into some of the latest research findings on our natural heritage. Initial feedback from delegates has been very positive and the conference received good media coverage.

Conference presentations are available for download at Conference presentations.