University wide bioblitzes - April and May 2026
Help us survey the wildlife on our campuses. Spend an afternoon - or whatever time you have - exploring our beautiful campus and recording the nature that you see. This will help us to understand and monitor the wildlife that calls our university home so that we may make better decisions about how to enhance and protect it.
You will need a phone and the app . Please download this and register before the event. You may also like to download the .
University Park Bioblitz - Wednesday 29 April 12.30-3pm
- Training: 12.30pm - 1pm
- Bioblitzing around campus: 1pm - 3.30pm
Please register here so we have an idea of numbers:
Jubilee Campus BioBlitz - Monday 27 April 2-4pm
A short talk will preceed this bioblitz so you know what to do. This event will feed into both the (UK wide bioblitz) and the .
Meeting point by the Lake at what3words: ///bumps.depend.feeds
Fill in this quick form if you would like to attend:
Sutton Bonington Bioblitz and nature walk - Tuesday 12 May
More details coming soon.
Wilding Photography Competition with PhotoSoc - 1-31 May
In collaboration with PhotoSoc and Green Rewards, submit your best wildlife photos into our competition to win a £20 voucher!
Category one: ‘Life on land’
Category two: ‘Life by the water’
To enter, sign up to Green Rewards, and submit your photos to either category. You will also earn 500 points for entering the competition. Users of Green Rewards will then be able to vote for their favorite photos from 1-5 June.
'Photo post' raffle
We have installed six new fixed photograpghy posts at some of our campuses most scenic locations. Help us monitor our landscapes and contribute to citizen science by sharing the photos you take at them via the . You will be helping to track habitat evolution and the effects of a changing climate.
To launch these photo posts, throughout May, photos from any of the locations will be entered into a free prize draw to win a UoN Wild Campus photo book. To enter, email a link to your post on the padlet to sustainability@nottingham.ac.uk. You can enter six photos, one from each location.
The photo posts can be found at the following locations on What3Words:
- University Park - The Downs: ///couch.vivid.cycle
- University Park - The Orchard: ///works.owner.factories
- Highfields Lake: ///wings.fault.woke
- Jubilee - Lakeside: ///sugars.pasta.music
- Sutton Bonington - Diamond Wood, Pasture Lane: ///noisy.dunk.span
- Sutton Bonington - The Arboretum: ///diamond.recap.putter
All the winning photos and a selection of best of the rest will be exhibited at the June Wilding Festival (see below).
Hedgehog house building - Tuesdays 1-3pm
If you’re an Architecture student, join in with hedgehog house building every Tuesday between 1pm and 3pm. These houses will provide safe, insulated refuges for hedgehogs emerging from hibernation, when they can be most vulnerable to cold, disturbance, and energy loss.
Location: Centre for 3D Design, University Park (drop in)
Twilight Bat Walk with Nottinghamshire Bat Group - Tuesday 5 May
Join bat experts from the Nottinghamshire Bat Group on this guided walk around University Park.
We'll start at 8.15pm with a small introduction to British bats, followed by a twilight bat walk with bat detectors. Bats we might see (and hear) include Soprano, Common pipistrelles and Noctules enjoy feeding on insects around the lake. The walk will take around 1 hour.
Places are limited and you must - first come first served.
Hedgehog surveys for Hedgehog Awareness Week - 6 and 13 May
3-9 May is ! Take the hedgehog pledge to protect our campus hedgehogs. 'Adopt a hedgehog’ by joining our hedgehog survey on campus! We’ll randomly place 10 tunnels across campus and monitor for activity. This will then inform the placement for the new hedgehog houses, created by Architecture students.
6 May - Placing hedgehog tunnels across campus to monitor activity
13 May - Collecting the results
1.30-3pm. Meeting in Millennium Gardens (what3words: ///start.rapid.soil)
Please register your interest here:
Wilding Campuses Festival - Wednesday 10 June
Come celebrate the end of our Wilding Campuses Project and let us say thank you for taking part.
- Free food!
- Nature workshops, including foraging, and pond activities.
- Photo competition winners and exhibition.
- Have your say on the future of Wilding at UoN.
- Hear from Nottinghamshire Wildife Trust about other ways to get involved and help nature.
- Speak to SOS-UK about student opportunities.
Come along to the Millennium Gardens from 12pm. Everyone welcome!
Please so that we can understand numbers.
More details to follow.
Share your Wilding Campuses experiences to help keep the project going
Thank you to everyone who has kindly volunteered with Wilding Campuses over the past couple of years. Your time, support and enthusiasm has made this project possible.
As we look to continue and grow Wilding Campuses, we’re gathering feedback from those who have taken part in two or more activities. This will help us better understand and showcase the impact of the project.
Volunteer case studies
If you’ve been involved and would be happy to share your experience, we’d love to hear from you. Please complete this short Microsoft Form if you would like to submit a case study: .
Participants will be compensated for their time and those selected will receive further guidance on what to include in their case study.
Impact survey
If you don't have time to do a case study, please complete this short survey instead to help us better understand the overall impact of the project on both students and campus. This will also help us to capture the most important changes you've experienced, how the project has benefited you personally (e.g., skills, confidence, opportunities), and how it has benefited your university (e.g., engagement, awareness, grounds, community impact).
Free training - support nature and biodiversity in education settings
If you are passionate about nature, biodiversity and helping people to connect to the world around them, joining the as a nature and biodiversity champion is the perfect opportunity for you to share your knowledge and skills. Through tailored training sessions delivered by the team at , you will receive ready-made activity guides and resources to use with your local education settings, whether it is mapping/creating habitats, aiding planting schemes, or rejuvenating a pond.
Please complete the to receive further information and training dates.
If you have any questions or would like to know more, please email ca-eastmidlands@nottingham.ac.uk.
Important information
- Grounds can provide PPE essential to the task as needed, including gloves, eye protection and hi-vis vests.
- Volunteers should provide their own footwear and will not be permitted to work with inadequate footwear on tasks where risk of foot injury is possible.
- First Aid kit will be provided on site.
If you plan on attending any events, please read this Risk Assessment.
Help us spread the word
Whilst these events are open to all, we are keen to engage with staff and students may not already have much connection with nature. This includes those from working class backgrounds, people of colour, students studying non-environmental courses, those with caring responsibilities and those with disabilities. Get in touch if you can help reach these groups.
Contact the Sustainability Team
Biodiversity at UoN
The university has some of the greenest campuses in the UK. They support a diverse range of habitats and species and are enjoyed by our staff, students, and the local community. The Wilding Campus project will tie in with work already underway to enhance and protect our beautiful green spaces for the benefit of all. A new biodiversity steering group, made up of staff and students, from across schools and operations, is driving this agenda.
Recent surveys have helped establish campus biodiversity baselines so we can set effective improvement targets. For example, as part of the Wild Campuses project, the university has committed to rewilding 15% of our land.
Wilding Campuses is a regional partnership project to restore local natural heritage, led by SOS-UK and made possible with the Heritage Fund and thanks to National Lottery players.