BIS was the first Local Record Centre in Wales and was established in 2000 covering the counties of Breconshire, Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire. It was one of 3 pilot record centres in the UK, (the others being in Cheshire and Northeast Scotland), funded by the partners and the Esmee Fairburn Trust through Wildlife Trusts UK. These pilot record centres were set up as 'nodes of the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) and would adopt the standards of NBN' (Linking LRC's Project). The BIS Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the founding members in 2000 and in 2001 the 3 staff started populating the species and habitat databases. BIS celebrated its 10th Anniversary in 2010/11.