Biodiversity boost: A cluster of projects working on transformative change is established

16 Dec 2024 / Events

On 17 March 2023, the European Research Executive Agency’s (REA) Unit B.3, Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment, in collaboration with the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), Unit B.3, organised an in-person workshop for a number of Horizon Europe projects contributing to Transformative Change for Biodiversity.  BioAgora participated as an observer and contributed to setting the context for the meeting alongside six other flagship projects and partnerships, namely Biodiversa+, Align project, CircHive project, SELINA project, and the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform. 

The participants in the event represented 11 Horizon Europe-funded projects and policy officers from the DG RTD and from the Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV). 

The objectives of the event were threefold:

  • To identify common areas of work and synergies among the 11 projects;
  • To facilitate knowledge sharing and best practices between these projects and other relevant EU projects and initiatives in the field, while also mapping research gaps and innovation needs;
  • To maximise the impact of the selected projects on EU policies and contribute to the European biodiversity knowledge framework.

Transformative Change Cluster

This group of initiatives has been established in order to facilitate the provision of results and useful resources to decision-makers. The aim is to boost the implementation of necessary improvements in environmental management, which is also the main goal of BioAgora. It is crucial to generate outputs and create tools that can support EU policy-making on a local, regional, and global scale. This will enable decision-makers in the EU to agree on novel measures contributing to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy ahead of 2030.

The purpose of the Transformative Change Cluster is to foster a new paradigm for biodiversity decision-making and jointly elaborate on the main challenges, develop new concepts, and propose solutions to overcoming current hurdles in the realm of biodiversity legislation. BioAgora is involved in the Cluster in its capacity as a strategic EU project that will create the Science Service for Biodiversity (SSBD). The SSBD will serve as the main scientific pillar of the EU Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD). 

To learn more, one of the guest projects, SELINA, also wrote a piece on its involvement in the event.