Expeditions with a natural history focus have been
organised by University of Glasgow staff and
students since the 1930s. The educational benefits of
such expeditions to students have been reported by
Harper
et
al.
(
Journal
of
Biological
Education
51, 3-
16; 2017). Here, we present a short history of these
expeditions, concentrating on their scientific
achievements. In addition to expedition reports, a
large number of PhD theses, masters and honours
project reports and scientific papers have been
based on expedition work. Many biological
specimens have been deposited in museums,
including some new species. We provide case
histories of four expedition locations, to demonstrate
the variety of work done, and the value of returning
many times to the same place: Scotland, Trinidad and
Tobago, North Cyprus and Ecuador. A major problem
for expeditions is funding. For many years, the
Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland ran a
funding stream that was crucial to the viability of
Scottish university expeditions, but this has sadly
now closed. For Glasgow University expeditions, the
Blodwen Lloyd Binns Bequest has provided a reliable
source since 1994, and we hope that it will continue
to do so
