Biodiversa+

01/01/2021 -

31/12/2028

Horizon Europe, Co-funded Partnership

Topics: , , ,

It is essential to value, protect and restore nature. This is the goal of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which is a comprehensive plan to conserve biodiversity in Europe. The EU-funded Biodiversa-plus project is crucial for the successful implementation of the strategy. Bringing together 75 organisations from 37 countries, including environmental authorities, research ministries, funding organisations, and environmental protection agencies, the project will work to coordinate research programmes and mobilise key partners for biodiversity research and innovation. Specifically, it will improve monitoring, generate actionable knowledge, expand the evidence base, and make the business case for conservation. It will also provide science-based support for policymaking.

"The European Biodiversity Partnership supporting excellent biodiversity research with an impact on policy and society."

Main objectives

Being one of the main actions of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) will coordinate research programmes between EU and its Member States and Associated Countries, mobilising environmental authorities as key partners for implementing biodiversity research and innovation, along with ministries of research, funding organisations, and environmental protection agencies (75 organisations from 37 countries). Biodiversa+ has five overarching objectives: (1) improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe (status and trends); (2) generate actionable knowledge to tackle the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss; (3) expand and improve the evidence base, and accelerate the development and wide deployment of NbS to meet societal challenges across Europe; (4) make the business case for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity; and (5) ensure efficient science-based support for biodiversity policy making in Europe. Biodiversa+ will meet these objectives by (i) setting up a pan-European network of harmonized monitoring schemes, building on existing national/regional monitoring schemes, creating capacity for setting up new schemes, and feeding into the EC Knowledge Center for Biodiversity; (ii) coordinating research programmes between the EU and its Member States and associated countries, thereby ensuring the long-term pan-European research agenda is co-created and implemented; (iii) contributing science-based methodologies to account for and possibly value ecosystem services and the natural capital, and to assess the dependency and impact of businesses on biodiversity and (iv) better linking of R&I programmes to the policy arena, providing greater input to policy making and improving the assessment of policy efficiency. Doing so, Biodiversa+ will help ensure that, by 2030, nature in Europe is back on a path of recovery, and by 2050 people are living in harmony with Nature.

Main results

Biodiversa+ is the European co-funded biodiversity partnership supporting excellent research on biodiversity with an impact for policy and society. Biodiversa+ is part of the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 that aims to put Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030. It aims to connect science, policy and practice for transformative change, gathering 81 research funders and environmental policy actors from 37 European and associated countries to work on 5 main objectives: 1. Plan and support research and innovation on biodiversity through a shared strategy, annual joint calls for research projects and capacity building activities 2. Set up a network of harmonised schemes to improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe 3. Contribute to high-end knowledge for deploying Nature-based Solutions and valuation of biodiversity in the private sector 4. Ensure efficient science-based support for policy-making and implementation in Europe 5. Strengthen the relevance and impact of pan-European research on biodiversity in a global context Through its membership and governance, the Partnership is promoting tighter collaboration between national/local and European policy makers in charge of biodiversity and related issues, including environmental agencies, R&I policy makers and R&I programme funders. The Partnership also provides an overarching platform fostering seamless collaboration and exchange amongst relevant actors (scientific community, public authorities, businesses, citizens, societal actors, NGOs etc.) at appropriate levels and scales. This in turn helps and supports citizens, policy makers and businesses in taking adequate action at European, national and local level. The Partnership is building critical mass in capacity, resources and expertise across countries/EU, across R&I and monitoring, and across science/society/policy, which reaches far beyond the achievements of traditional actions through national or Framework Programmes. The Partnership will also further increase synergies between existing initiatives to avoid duplication, validate previous investments and harness existing expertise.

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