The BOU’s Engagement Committee has an exciting opportunity for you to work with us on delivering our blog content.

Application deadline: 29 August 2025

Background

The BOU is one of the world’s most respected ornithological organisations, with an international membership stretching across all continents. Our mission is to promote ornithology, which we do through publication of excellent science in our journal IBIS, supporting a global community of scientists and practitioners, through conferences and online resources, and providing grants and bursaries to fund research and career development. We are especially proud of our initiatives to engage and support the global ornithological community, particularly early career ornithologists, and in promoting equality and diversity in ornithology.

#theBOUblog

The BOU is widely recognised as a leader in the use of social media in ornithology, and #theBOUblog is an integral part of this engagement. The most-visited section of the BOU website, #theBOUblog delivers regular post on papers published in IBIS and other journals, as well as covering a broad range of topics, from the use of social media to diversity issues within ornithology.

The role of Blog Editor

The Blog Editor is responsible for sourcing, editing and publishing content on #theBOUblog, and for scheduling social media posts promoting individual blog posts. You will be working directly with, and be supported by, the BOU’s Chief Operations Officer.

Key aspects of the role are:

• IBIS blog posts
  • To solicit new blog posts from accepted authors.
  • To work with blog post authors to deliver an interesting article to deadline.
  • To edit and publish blog posts on the BOU website (WordPress).
• Non-IBIS blog posts
  • To solicit blog posts from third party journal authors.
  • To solicit community articles, including contributions to the BOU’s diversity blog and reports from BOU grant recipients.
• Social media
  • To prepare and schedule social media content to promote published blog posts.
  • To work with the BOU’s Chief Operations Officer to promote #theBOUblog across social media, in order to generate blog contributions.
• Optionally, sit on the BOU Engagement Committee, as a full member.
  • The Engagement Committee meets online twice a year and through this role you will have input into all BOU engagement activities.

Applicants must have a broad interest in ornithology, science communication and the use of social media in promoting science. You should have good written English and experience of editing written content. You will need to be self-motivated, be able to work unsupervised, deliver to deadline and be familiar with the BOU, its role, its activities and its standing within the ornithological community.

This is one of five Support Officer roles within the BOU – Blog Editor, Conference, Equality & Diversity, Journal Publicity and Social Media. The roles vary and demands on individual Support Officers fluctuate but we ask each Support Officer to provide a minimum of 18 days support service a year.

The role of a BOU Support Officer is particularly suited to an early career ornithologist as these roles progress personal development in key areas such as science communication, working within a team to deliver core activities and working at society committee level to help develop and deliver a wide range of outreach activities.

This role is initially for two years and is supported by an annual honorarium of £1,100.

Applications and schedule
Complete this online form to apply for this position.

Deadline for applications: 29 August 2025

About the BOU

The British Ornithologists’ Union will promote ornithological science across the international scientific community, support the individuals who contribute to that science, and grow understanding of that science among a wider community. The BOU mission will be achieved by the following means:

• Publishing IBIS as a leading international journal of ornithological science.
• Organising a programme of meetings and conferences.
• Awarding grants and bursaries for ornithological research.
• Encouraging liaison between those actively engaged in ornithological research.
• Providing a representative body of the scientific community, able to provide ornithological information and advice to government and other policy makers.
• Maintaining and publishing the official list of birds recorded in Britain – The British List.

The BOU has a strong, global membership and social media presence which we use to drive our activities and to promote ornithology at the widest level, particularly within the global scientific research community. We use our social media outreach to drive the online attention of IBIS papers and to educate our ornithological research community about the benefits of promoting their research and how to do this effectively.