1.  SCIENTIFIC CHARITY

  The North of England Zoological Society (Chester Zoo) is an independent charity and a major centre for conservation, science and public education. The large and complex scientific and educational activities and offerings of the Zoo are given in detail in the Annual Report of 2006, entitled `A Shared Vision' available on the web at www.chesterzoo.org

2.  BIGGEST WILDLIFE EDUCATIONAL AUDIENCE IN THE UK

  The Zoo is the most visited wildlife attraction in the UK, and consistently achieves in excess of 1 million visits per annum. It is also the fourth most visited leisure and tourist attraction in the UK, according to statistics compiled by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in 2006. This extraordinary high volume of visitors presents huge opportunities for education and training both formal and informal that cannot be approached by the smaller, more traditional science and discovery centres. There are opportunities to present on a very wide range of general scientific, biological, conservational and environmental themes.

3.  FORMAL AND INFORMAL TEACHING FOR SCHOOLS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

  Formal teaching for school groups is provided for 87,000 children each year in our education centre. A team of presenters who worked informally in the Zoo grounds during 2006 made contact with more than 482,321 visitors at 3,644 talks aimed at our general audience. The topics are as varied as chimpanzee biology, evolution of insects, saving marine mammals and the life of carnivorous plants.

4.  TRAINING PROGRAMMES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

  In addition, courses are run for further and higher education interests including a BSc in Conservation Medicine and an MSc in Conservation Biology, run in conjunction with the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester. The Zoo is also involved in delivering specialist training for other zoo professionals and biological scientists. Our animal healthcare staff delivered more than 20 lectures and organized workshops as part of undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes and provided on-site instruction to 30 veterinary students. The Zoo has a large in-take of long term work placement students with 17 year-long internships and 42 other students, 33 of whom in 2006 were from overseas. Many of these students go on to follow careers in conservation, zoology or veterinary/medicine.

5.  POPULAR TALKS PROGRAMME

  There is a popular scientific talks programme in our Lecture Theatre targeted mainly at life-long-learning and which attracts members, students and the general public.

6.  RESEARCH TRAINING CENTRE

  The Zoo has a significant research profile with over 150 visiting researchers from 24 institutions who carried out numerous research projects in 2006. Almost 80% of these researchers were based at universities in the northwest with the remainder coming from other areas of the UK and overseas. Fourteen per cent of projects were conducted towards postgraduate degrees and towards vocational qualifications and peer reviewed academic research. For the undergraduates the emphasis is on training in research methods.

7.  RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

  Over 170 research projects were carried out within the Zoo in 2006, some of which were by staff and others by visiting researchers. The majority of visiting researchers were students including 126 BSc, 12 MSc, 1 M.Res., and 8 PhD. In 2006 more than 100 publications and formal technical reports resulted from these projects.

8.  EDUCATION IN THE ZOO REFLECTS GLOBAL FIELD CONSERVATION PROGRAMMES

  Our conservation work in 2006 spanned more than 180 activities or projects in over 50 countries and 6 continents. The educational programmes and interpretation in the Zoo reflects this large external effort in conservation and sustainability.

9.  ZOO GENERATES MOST OF ITS OWN INCOME AND IS INDEPENDENT OF PUBLIC FUNDING

  The Zoo is entirely dependent on income through visitors paying at the gate and from fundraising activities. Thus far, it has not received any substantial direct funding from government to support a turnover in excess of £22 million. However, the Zoo is happy to acknowledge recent success in gaining a prestigious Darwin Award for work in conserving Asian elephants in the field and a Northwest Development Agency grant of £1.9 million as matched funding to support the planning and development of a major £100 million expansion of the Zoo which would include a very large discovery centre for conservation and science.

10.  NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION RECOGNISED BY NUMEROUS AWARDS

  The Zoo has an international reputation and has gained more than 80 awards since 2000 in many fields of endeavour in conservation, education, science and business excellence. This includes the Queen's Award for Excellence in the category of Sustainable Development.

11.  BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SCIENCE IN ZOOS

  An article by myself in the current Whitsun issue of Science in Parliament (volume 64, number 2, pages 6-7) explains the wider role of science in zoos and aquariums in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

12.  OFFER OF FURTHER INPUT TO INQUIRY

  I would be pleased to present further information to the Science and Technology Committee in support of this Inquiry, as appropriate.

June 2007