“White paper on how the private sector can be engaged in R&I programming and funding”
Drawing on interviews carried out across fourteen European initiatives, insights from Biodiversa+ activities, and recent developments in EU and global biodiversity policy, this white paper explores how businesses can take part in biodiversity Research & Innovation (R&I), and how research organisations and funders can work with them more effectively.
Why engage the private sector in biodiversity R&I?
Private sector engagement brings major added value to biodiversity R&I, including:
- access to operational knowledge and real world testing environments,
- greater capacity for innovation and upscaling,
- accelerated uptake of research results in applied contexts,
- complementarity with public research institutions, which provide scientific rigour and long-term knowledge generation.
Research organisations, for their part, provide scientific rigour and continuity, helping to ensure that solutions are robust and evidence‑based. Their role is particularly important now, as businesses encounter growing biodiversity‑related risks, expanded data expectations and evolving regulation.
Key takeaways
The white paper outlines the range of ways businesses engage in R&I and introduces a typology that organises the different levels and modes of their participation. It also highlights key obstacles, including mismatched timelines between academic and commercial work, administrative burdens, limited SME resources, intellectual property concerns, and difficulties in turning research results into practical decisions.
A number of themes surface across the case studies:
- Clear governance is essential: partnerships with transparent roles and shared responsibilities tend to build trust and support long‑term collaboration.
- Blended funding reduces risk: schemes mixing public and private contributions (such as LIFE projects, CIFRE theses, Horizon Europe or Biodiversa+) create favourable conditions for business participation.
- Co‑construction increases relevance: projects shaped jointly by researchers and companies produce results that are easier to implement and more closely aligned with operational needs.
- Relationships matter: many collaborations begin through personal or professional networks and only later evolve into formal partnerships. These informal pathways play an important role in building confidence and shared understanding.
- Data infrastructure is becoming central: robust, interoperable biodiversity data systems are increasingly recognised as essential to informed decision‑making for both public and private actors.
Stronger private sector engagement is essential for meeting Europe’s biodiversity goals for 2030. The white paper calls for clearer pathways for business participation, better support for SMEs, improved data‑sharing practices, and more opportunities for co‑developing research agendas. Biodiversa+ will continue working with partners across sectors to help build these conditions.
