This Technical Information Note sets out the recommended metadata to be provided when submitting DNA derived data to Natural England (where Natural England is not the commissioner) to allow a judgement of confidence to be made in the data, and helps the data to be used appropriately.
Understanding how a sample has been taken, stored, extracted, amplified, sequenced and the bioinformatics processes that have been used, allows the data user to make a judgement of confidence in the data and therefore understand how to use the data appropriately. For example, knowing the primer used, allows the data user to understand the species being tested for eg vertebrates, any primer biases and other key information.
This note is not mandatory, and data will be accepted without metadata, although it may affect the confidence Natural England can have in the data, and therefore how it can be used.
We would like to thank those from industry and academia who joined two workshops during the drafting of these guidelines.