Liam Lysaght is Director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, an organisation that collates and manages data on Ireland wildlife. Wildlife, or biodiversity, data are a key requirement for understanding our natural surroundings, for tracking change in our environment and for gaining a greater insight to how we benefit from, and impact upon, the ecosystem goods and services provided by biological diversity. A great deal of the work of the Data Centre involves building capacity to increase the quality and quantity of biodiversity data generated by the citizen scientist community. Liam is one of the most experienced conservationists working in Ireland at the moment. In addition to heading up the National Biodiversity Data Centre, he is Head of Delegation for Ireland to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a global informatics network of 95 partner organisations working to deliver scientific data to meet global conservation policy needs.