Debris discs - analogous to the asteroid and Kuiper-Edgeworth belts in the Solar system - have so far mostly been identified and studied in thermal emission shortward of 100um. The Herschel space observatory and the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array-2 (SCUBA-2) camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope will allow efficient photometric surveying at 70 to 850um, which allows for the detection of cooler discs not yet discovered, and the measurement of disc masses and temperatures when combined with shorter wavelength photometry. The SCUBA-2 Unbiased Nearby Stars survey (SUNS) and the Disc Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in the Infrared/Submillimetre (DEBRIS) Herschel Open Time Key Project are complementary legacy surveys observing samples of ~500 nearby stellar systems. To maximize the legacy value of these surveys, great care has gone into the target selection process. This paper describes the target selection process and presents the target lists of these two surveys.