This month, BioMonWeek2026 came together as the first pan-European conference on biodiversity monitoring. Hosted by the city of Montpellier between 05 and 07 May, the event was co-organised by the BioAgora project along with its partners from Biodiversa+, Alliance for Nature, GBIF and MARCO-BOLO. The result of their efforts was a comprehensive three-day programme highlighting innovations, challenges and prospects that define biosphere observation today. In terms of the conference’s audience, the occasion saw a sizeable and diverse representation of stakeholders from research, governance and practitioner circles.
In the run-up to the event, BioAgora was extensively involved in organising the proceedings, with a number of consortium members contributing to the vision behind BioMonWeek2026. Most notably, Maria Blasi (CREAF) served as the scientific coordinator overseeing thematic sessions linked to public policy and funding for biodiversity monitoring. She executed this role in her capacity as co-leader of BioAgora’s Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) on biodiversity monitoring.
Zeroing in on the conference’s programme, the project was in the spotlight on numerous occasions:
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a cluster event by BioAgora itself and the European Commission for EU-funded projects dealing with biodiversity monitoring - Ms. Blasi, along with her CREAF colleagues Lluís Brotons and Gloria Casabella-Herrero, as well as Sandra Luque (INRAE) facilitated a discussion among representatives from more than 70 initiatives on their ambitions, expectations and synergies
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three interconnected sessions on innovations in remote sensing on the road to improve observation methodologies across ecosystems - Ms. Luque chaired the exchange of insights from research and practice alike
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a showcase by Lisa Norton (UKCEH) on the interlinkages between local, national, regional and global monitoring networks
Also in attendance from the BioAgora consortium were Nikita Sharma (ECSA) and Jiska Van Dijk (NINA), with the latter representing the Protected Areas and Connected Nature KEN. Moreover, the project also had its own booth in BioMonWeek’s exhibition space, manned by Peter Bozakov (Pensoft Publishers). In addition to KEN-specific outputs, the stand featured materials for a number of fellow Horizon Europe initiatives, including ANERIS, OBSGESSION, CO-OP4CBD, RESPIN, TRANSPATH, FORSAID, ForestPaths, ANTENNA, SELINA, eLTER and SHOWCASE, highlighting the collaboration between them and BioAgora.
You can look back on BioMonWeek2026 on its official website. More on BioAgora's Knowledge Exchange Networks that were presented at the conference can be found here.