Harrison Institute, Centre for Biodiversity Research

It is ten years today since we lost our great friend, colleague, patron and inspiration, Dr David Harrison. We still miss his kindness, intellect, guidance and the sense of 'family' that he brought to everyone who knew him.

Aicha Gomeh-Djame, a PhD student from Cameroon who we are co-supervising, has just returned from her fourth field trip to Lobeke National Park. Situated in the Northwest Congo Forest, this is a tough place to work. Tough but also exciting, and Aicha continues to produce amazing, globally important results for her bat research. On this last trip, with a team of all male Forest Rangers, Aicha has shown tremendous leadership in persuading them to access inaccessible areas of the forest in order to gather her data. She also works alongside the Baka people, indigenous to the forest. Aicha's work has been sponsored by Rufford, BCI, CARN, SMACON, IdeaWild, and ourselves and she is currently part of BCI's mentorship programme, which includes fellow researchers from Colombia and Indonesia. We would love to share some of early results but these will have to wait for her upcoming publications.

We have recently returned from Myanmar, where we caught up with many wonderful colleagues/friends. In addition to our own personal friends, these included Ko Toe and Hnin Witt Yee who worked with us on the Darwin Initiative Irrawaddy dolphin community project; Saw Myat Ohnmar, who together with Dr Thein Aung and his fab team at Wild Wings contributed so much to the EU Erasmus project; and Drs Si Si Hla Bu and Khin Mie Mie, whom I have known and variously worked with since 1999. It was a fantastic trip - focused on Mandalay, Bagan and Yangon. During the visit, we explored the possibility of slowly restarting some biodiversity conservation projects. There are so many opportunities for valuable and interesting research and such a need to give hope and purpose to the next generation of Myanmar conservationists.

We congratulate Aicha Gomeh-Djame on the success of her recent visit to the Harrison Institute. Aicha came for a two week intensive training programme relating to her PhD on the diversity and conservation of bats in the Northwestern Congolian forest of Cameroon. Although the time was short, the outputs were truly substantial and she is now well placed to prepare her first paper. Well done Aicha!

As part of the Institute's commitment to training and supporting students/early career scientists from Asia and Africa, and as a direct result of our attendance of SMACON's wonderful workshop in Nigeria in March 2022, we have been working recently with talented PhD students from Cameroon. Under the guidance of Prof Bakwo-Fils, these young, individuals have shown great commitment to embracing new techniques to study bats and other small mammals in Cameroon and beyond. Amongst other things, we are very happy to have helped with a recent website (in French and English) https://www.batcameroon-lnp.org/ , which highlights their commitment to bat research in the Congolian Forests Lobéké National Park, Southeast Cameroon.

On the following morning after the gala dinner, there was a press conference in the Ornithology Department of NHM Vienna. Many sectors of the Viennese press attended (TV, newspapers, online..) and Dr Katrin Vohland, NHM Vienna Director, and Dr Swen Renner spoke for the museum and Paul Bates spoke for the Harrison Institute. In the afternoon, Dr Swen and Hans-Martin Berg (Bird Collections Manager) very kindly showed Guy Harrison, the Trustees and our various other guests around the Ornithological section. It was the end of a superb week.

For some 13 years, the Harrison Institute has worked closely with Dr Swen Renner on various research, training and capacity building projects in SE Asia. Today, Swen is Head of Ornithology at the highly prestigious Natural History Museum, Vienna. In November, the NHM Vienna put on a fantastic gala fund-raising dinner to celebrate the collaboration between the two institutions and particularly with respect to the Institute's bird collection. With an introductory talk by the British Ambassador to Austria, a short video highlighting the life and ornithological work of the Harrison family, and various other presentations, this was a wonderful evening. We thank Dr Katrin Vohland (Director of NHM Vienna) and all the Vienna team for the magnificent evening and Guy Harrison (representing the family), James and Clare Stephen and Nigel Pyke (Trustees) for their wonderful support. We greatly look forward to collaborating further with the NHM Museum in both Asia and Africa.

In September, the Harrison Institute together with 'Bats without Borders' organised a bat acoustics training workshop, which was led and delivered by Helen Boyd-Taylor. Focused on three students/scientists from Zambia and Cameroon, it provided up to two weeks of intensive training in all aspects of bat acoustics. Thanks to Helen and the hard working delegates, it was extremely successful. In addition to ourselves, it was also attended by Dr Marcela Suarez-Rubio of the BOKU (university) Vienna with whom we have worked extensively in SE Asia and who in addition to birds is developing a keen interest in African bats.

Following the GBatNet meeting, we all joined the 19th IBRC, which was based at the Hilton Austin. This had a fantastic programme of presentations and posters and numerous interesting colleagues from across the globe. However, after 36 hours, I was struck down by covid and had to sit out most of the meeting in my room - not a good way of spending time. I am most grateful to Steve Rossiter and others who so kindly kept me and other colleagues supplied with water and snacks. They did a magnificent job.

In August, we joined the first 'in-person' GBatNet workshop. This took place in Austin, Texas prior to the IBRC. It was attended by colleagues from North, Central and South America; Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. It was a fabulous gathering for all those committed to the study and conservation of bats worldwide. We thank Dr Tigga Kingston, all those on the scientific board of GBatNet for making this such a memorable workshop.

After over 90 years based at Bowerwood House, much of the last two years have been dedicated to our on-going restructuring and our forthcoming move - a huge task. To deliver this, we have been working with a series of museums and universities in UK, Europe and beyond. We also published a Masterplan that summarises our future direction. The Masterplan is available on our website at https://www.harrison-institute.org/aboutus .