On 19 April 2023 in Prague, Biodiversa+ together with TA CR (the Technology Agency from Czech Republic) organised the kick-off meeting of the research projects funded under the BiodivProtect research Call on «Supporting the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems across land and sea ».
36 excellent research projects with potential impact on society and policy were funded through this joint call for over 44 million euros.
Three keynote speakers introduced the kick-off meeting :
- Judith Fisher (Policy-Management Chair of the BiodivProtect Call’s Evaluation Committee and Fisher Research Pty Ltd Director, University of Western Australia Associate Professor) who, as former co-Chair of the BiodivProtect Evaluation Committee presented the results of the call, also available in the call brochure
- Piero Visconti (Research Group Leader of the Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation Group at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) & coordinator of the NaturaConnect project), who highlighted how the 36 funded projects can contribute to European policies related to conservation, and
- John Robinson (Joan L. Tweedy Chair in Conservation Strategy at Wildlife Conservation Society) who focused on the global context for protection issues and how the funded projects fit this global context.
It allowed the 36 funded projects to present and discuss their work, and to start identifying areas of collaboration among them.
This kick-off gathered around 120 on-site participants and 95 unique online participants with a broad range of profiles: researchers, stakeholders, representatives of the European Commission, Members of the BiodivProtect Evaluation Committee, Members of the Biodiversa+ Advisory Board and Biodiversa+ Partners (including many funding organisations from this call).
This kick-off meeting was organised back-to-back with a science-policy forum and a closed Networking & Clustering session dedicated to funded projects.