GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Better, accessible and FAIR data on species, biodiversity and ecosystems will help to ensure that biodiversity preservation is a mainstream feature of other sectors, such as agriculture, transport, energy or the bioeconomy.

There is a need for systemic and standardised biodiversity data on the ground in order to build up our knowledge on the status and trends of habitats and species and ecosystems, and on the drivers of decline. Monitoring needs to be of better quality, greater relevance and more cost-effective. This is to be achieved by, among other things, developing, testing and implementing new (long-term) approaches that make use of recent technological advances and existing data from multiple origins. Projects should develop, test and implement enabling tools, technologies and fast identification methodologies to produce and integrate data, knowledge and models on the conservation status of species and habitats, with a focus on those covered by the Birds and Habitats Directives. They should also, help to develop an integrated European biodiversity monitoring system, in collaboration with the initiatives and projects mentioned below.

The biogeographical approach of the Natura 2000 network needs to be taken into account. Projects should produce an inventory of pollinator species through integrative taxonomy, and bridge taxonomic gaps by developing tools for bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies.

Projects should contribute their data to the Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity and earmark the necessary resources for cooperation with the Centre; projects should also promote synergies with the European co-funded partnership on biodiversity (HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01) and its activities.