On the 12th and 13th of November 2019, in Brussels, BiodivERsA held the final conference of the research projects funded through its 2015-2016 COFUND Call on “Understanding and managing biodiversity dynamics to improve ecosystem functioning and delivery of ecosystem services in a global change context: the cases of soil sand sediments, and land-river and sea-scapes”, which was co-funded by the European Commission.
This Final Conference was an excellent opportunity to present the results of the 26 projects funded under the 2015-2016 Call for a total amount of 33.9M€. It was also an opportunity to remind the main issues and challenges related to the topic of the call and to highlight how BiodivERsA contributed to advance knowledge in the field, thus also contributing to reinforce European Research Area in the field of biodiversity, ecosystem services and Nature-based solutions.
The Final conference started with presentations from keynote speakers. The introductory speech was made by Stephen J. Hawkins, former Dean Natural and Environmental Sciences from the University of Southampton and Chair of the BiodivERsA 2015-2016 call’s Evaluation Committee. It was followed by two keynote speeches; one by George Kowalchuk from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) related to soil biodiversity and one from Bill Slee from the James Hutton Institute related to green and blue infrastructures.
This was followed by presentations from the representatives from the 26 funded-projects participating to the Final Project Conference who presented and explained the results of their projects from a science and societal / policy perspectives. This allowed to share excellent knowledge and good practices among the researchers. A session was also organised to identify results from the funded projects that could be translated into policy recommendations in future policy briefs.
Lastly, the Final conference was also a good opportunity to present to the participants the on-going reflections around the preparation of a European co-funded partnership on biodiversity and to collect the feedbacks from the research community, mainly.
Besides, the award ceremony of the BiodivERsA Prize for Excellence and Impact was organised during this final conference. The videos realized to highlight the results of the URBES project coordinated by Thomas Elmquist and of the BUFFER project coordinated Joachim Claudet were presented to showcase the achievements of these BiodivERsA-funded projects that have produced excellent science with concrete impacts for policy and/or society.
- Stephen J. Hawkins, former Dean Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton and Chair of the BiodivERsA 2015-2016 Call’s Evaluation Committee: Introduction.
- George Kowalchuk, from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO). Keynote speech: Using ecological rules to help tame the soil microbiome.
- Bill Slee, from the James Hutton Institute. Keynote speech: Green and blue infrastructures. Reflection on their capacity to address contemporary environmental challenges.
- Prof. Erik Andersson from the University of Stockholm. Engagement with stakeholders: project ENABLE.
- Stephen Piskol, Project Manager at Adelphi. Engagement with stakeholders: project BIOGEA.
- Oliver Dilly from the German DLR Project Management Agency. Concluding remarks: Soil / Blue-Green-Infrastructure Call 2015/2016.
- BearConnect – Functional connectivity and ecological sustainability of European ecological networks – a case study with the brown bear.
- BIO-Tide – The role of microbial biodiversity in the functioning of marine tidal flat sediments.
- BIOGEA – Testing BIOdiversity Gain of European Agriculture with CAP greening.
- BIOINVENT – Generic bio-inventory of functional soil microbial diversity in permanent grassland ecosystems across management and climate gradients.
- BIOVEINS – Connectivity of green and blue infrastructures: living veins for biodiverse and healthy cities.
- CLIMARCTIC – Climate change impacts on Arctic soil and lake microbiomes.
- CROSSLINK – Understanding cross-habitat linkages between blue and green infrastructure to optimize management of biodiversity, ecosystem services and multiple human uses.
- Digging_Deeper – Agro-ecosystem diversification: digging deeper.
- ENABLE – Enabling green-blue infrastructure in complex social-ecological regions – system solutions to wicked problems.
- FUNgreen – Functional connectivity and green infrastructure.
- GreenFutureForest – Scenarios for a sustainable future forest green infrastructure.
- IMAGINE – Integrative Management of Green Infrastructures Multifunctionality, Ecosystem integrity and Ecosystem Services: From assessment to regulation in socio-ecological systems.
- INFRAGECO – Inference, fragmentation, genomics and conservation.
- MARFOR – Functional Variability and Dynamics of Responses of Marine Forests to Global Change.
- ODYSSEUS – Between Scylla and Charybdis – managing connectivity for freshwater fish.
- OSCAR – Optimising the configuration of woody riparian buffer strips along rivers to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services.
- PERCEBES – Tools for the transition to spatial management of coastal resources: the stalked barnacle fishery in SW Europe.
- Repeat – REstoration and prognosis of PEAT formation in fens – linking diversity in plant functional traits to soil biological and biogeochemical processes.
- RESERVEBENEFIT – Evaluating and managing connectivity in a network of Marine Protected Area to maintain genetic diversity and deliver fish beyond protected limits.
- SOILCLIM – Managing soil biodiversity and ecosystem services in agroecosystems across Europe under climate change.
- SoilForEUROPE – Predicting European forest soil biodiversity and its functioning under climate change.
- SoilMan – Ecosystem services driven by the diversity of soil biota – understanding and management.
- SPONFOREST – Unraveling the potential of SPONtaneous FORest ESTablishment for improving ecosystem functions and services in dynamic landscapes.
- URBANGAIA – Managing urban Biodiversity and Green Infrastructure to increase city resilience?
- URBANMYCOSERVE – Understanding and Managing Urban Ectomycorrhizal Fungi Communities to Increase the Health and Ecosystem Service Provisioning of Urban Trees.
- WOODNET – Connectivity patterns and processes along a gra
