During the first initial funding period, RESPIN focused on improving expert engagement in global biodiversity and climate processes, strengthening science-policy connections at national and subnational levels, and supporting the use of IPBES and IPCC knowledge in EU policy and international negotiations. To identify who is involved in global biodiversity and climate assessments and what prevents wider participation a survey was conducted across Europe, Central Asia, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This highlighted key barriers and opportunities for involving more experts in science-policy work. In March 2025, the PESC-RESPIN meeting in Brussels brought together national focal points (NFPs), scientists, and stakeholder to connect biodiversity and climate communities in Europe and Central Asia. To explore how scientific findings are actually used in decision-making, a social network analysis in seven countries mapped information flows between ministries, researchers, and civil society, and highlighted gaps in communication. Workshops in three regions—Catalonia (Spain), Valle del Cauca (Colombia), and Wiesbaden (Germany)—brought local actors together to identify common challenges, including low visibility of IPBES/IPCC outputs, poor coordination between climate and biodiversity efforts, and limited institutional capacity. RESPIN also assessed how the work of MAES (Mapping Europe’s ecosystems) could address knowledge gaps identified in global assessments. At the EU level, a workshop with European Commission staff explored how to make global assessments more useful for policymaking. Key takeaways are the importance of clear and timely information, and of intuitional changes that better connect science and policy. RESPIN also analyzed how well EU climate, biodiversity, agriculture, and trade policies reflect global science findings, and conducted interviews to understand how these policies are put into practice. Finally, RESPIN supported the EU delegation during the 2024 IPBES 11 plenary in Namibia and shared project findings through stakeholder events, ensuring that decisions at EU and international level are informed by the best available knowledge on biodiversity and climate change.
