For over 80 years the Trust has been conducting scientific research to understand why there have been declines in species such as the grey partridge, black grouse, water vole, corn bunting and brown hare.

The Trust advises conservationists, farmers and land managers on ways to improve wildlife habitat and enhance the countryside for public benefit.

[3] In 2004, the Trust won the first UFAW Wild Animal Welfare Award from the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare for its innovative low-cost ‘Mink Raft’, which enabled the efficient monitoring and capture of mink while minimising the risks to non-target species for water vole conservation.

[5][6][7] The Trust's charitable objectives are stated as: A severe outbreak of the disease strongylosis in grey partridges in 1931 led Major HG Eley (a shotgun cartridge manufacturer) to establish the ICI Game Research Station at Knebworth in Hertfordshire.

[12] The Trust has been studying insect and invertebrate abundance in an area of the Sussex Downs – 32 square kilometres of farmland used mainly for cereal crops.