“European Roadmap to 2030 for Research and Innovation on Nature-based Solutions”
As a partner in NetworkNature, Biodiversa+ developed this strategic document to outline the core action areas for European research and innovation (R&I) on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that are essential to support their development, implementation, and upscaling across Europe.
The roadmap first synthesises insights from EU-funded research, stakeholder consultations, and a comprehensive mapping of more than 300 NbS-related projects supported under Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, LIFE, Interreg and BiodivERsA programmes. It highlights the substantial growth of the European NbS research landscape and identifies persistent gaps requiring coordinated action.
The roadmap then presents the vision of empowering policy, practice, businesses, and society to fully mobilise the potential of Nature-based Solutions in achieving a sustainable and just transition. To achieve this, it identifies four strategic action areas for transdisciplinary R&I:
- Advancing NbS knowledge and data: strengthening understanding of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, NbS performance across contexts and scales, long term sustainability, and both monetary and non monetary valuation of NbS benefits;
- Closing the research-implementation gap: improving integration between R&I and demonstration activities, supporting business uptake, developing tools, standards and guidance, and identifying enabling conditions for wider deployment;
- Mainstreaming NbS in policy: enhancing integration of NbS into EU, national, and local policy frameworks, supporting cross sectoral coherence, and contributing to EU and global policy processes, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework;
- Building awareness, capacity and dialogue: empowering stakeholders through co-creation processes, education and training, citizen engagement, and strengthened transdisciplinary collaboration.
Aligned with major EU strategies (such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Climate Adaptation Strategy) and global science-policy processes (such as IPBES, IPCC and the CBD), the roadmap is intended as a reference for research funders, policymakers, practitioners, businesses, and civil society actors engaged in Nature-based Solutions across Europe. Its implementation will be supported by NetworkNature+ (2023–2027), which will coordinate knowledge integration, dialogue with funders and EU Missions, and continuous update of NbS needs and priorities.
