TWO budding scientists have been awarded funding for their projects from the Dick Potts Legacy Fund – a year after the pioneering New Forest-based ecologist passed away.

Manuel Püttmanns will be using the grant to focus on skylark habitat use, while Susan Hammond is researching beetles in Sussex, a project started by Mr Potts.

In 2016, Mr Potts, who was director general of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) used pitfall traps to look at the activity of beetles in the cereal fields. This was continued in 2017 by GWCT's farmland ecology team, who ran a series of pitfall traps in a second group of cereal fields, again collecting beetles.

Now, Ms Hammond will take on the identification of beetles from 2017 and collect beetles for a final third year of surveying.

Dr Julie Ewald, head of geographical information systems at GWCT, said: “The fund received several very good applications, with the advisors to the fund selecting two projects that fulfilled the criteria of agro-ecological projects that Dick Potts would have found exciting and worthy of consideration.

“They are also projects being undertaken by young researchers, just starting out on their scientific careers, where the addition of a small amount of funding might make all the difference to the outcome of the projects.”

The fund, set-up shortly after Dr Potts died on March 30 last year by his wife Olga, has raised nearly £17,000. Funds are still available, and applications re-open in September.