BiodivERsA is the network of programmers and funders for research on biodiversity, ecosystem services (ESS) and Nature-based solutions (NBS) across European countries and territories. Biodiversity loss is a major societal challenge requiring scientific support to policy and management decisions and coordinated strategies for the resilience of human societies in a changing world.
Funded under Horizon 2020, BiodivERsA gathered 34 partners from 24 countries and
strengthened the cooperation between funding agencies and the EC through a shared vision, and provided stakeholders with adequate knowledge and tools to explore innovative solutions with and for biodiversity.
BiodivERsA3 has achieved its ambition as a major source of funding for European transdisciplinary biodiversity R&I projects and key player at the science-policy-society interface, by:
•Developing a strategic, multi-annual vision under its 2017 SRIA first and then the Biodiversa+ SRIA.
•Enlarging the consortium, including in ORs&OCTs & at the international scale, growing from 31 to 39 partners in the period, and from 18 to 25 countries.
•Implementing joint calls to better integrate research across Europe, with two major calls for 45M€ (of which 1 COFUND) as part of Biodversa3, and 3 additional calls in parallel COFUND actions (one of which with the Belmont Forum).
•Developing other joint activities, e.g. alignment of national research programs, promotion of mobility and equal opportunities for researchers & data sharing, with the alignment around the Biodiversa SRIAs and the support to synthesis research via European synthesis centers, implemented part of the 2018 call.
•Promoting effective science-policy-society dialogue during the whole research process, with guidance from a mixed advisory board, feedbacks from over 50 major organisations on the Biodiversa SRIA, development of policy briefs, videos from the BiodivERsA Prize for Excellence and Impact, guides on citizen science or policy relevance of research, networking opportunities to connect with business, policy and an effective collaboration with IPBES, including the hosting of the IPBES technical support unit for knowledge generation from 2019 onwards. BiodivERsA promoted innovative approaches to assessing outcomes of its funded projects.
Overall BiodivERsA3 largely reached and exceeded its objectives, building on two phases of successful collaboration since 2005 and leading to BiodivERsA co-developing the European Partnership on Biodiversity (2021-2028) with the European Commission, first Partnership of its kind all R&I topics confounded.
