Congratulations to the winners of the 6th edition of the Biodiversa Prize for Excellence and Impact, AlienScenarios and GloBAM!

The AlienScenarios project has conducted a pioneering study on potential future scenarios of biological invasions in the 21st century. By combining scenario planning and advanced modeling techniques, researchers examined the impact of biological invasions on the environment and human well-being in both the midterm (2050) and long-term (2100).

 

These scenarios have been demonstrated to be crucial both for understanding, predicting, preparing for the future, and for communicating to the stakeholders, policy makers, and general public about these major drivers of global change. The project evaluated the effectiveness of regulations aimed at managing invasive species and quantified the economic costs associated with these invasions. AlienScenarios has also explored strategies for adapting to and managing invasive species through policy.

The GloBAM project has studied the movements of birds, insects and bats in global airspace and their ecological implications. Using weather radar data, the project quantified migratory patterns in Europe and North America, exploring the drivers of the animals’ movements and abundances.

 

This groundbreaking approach has shed new light on the impacts of climate change, urbanisation, wind energy installations, and habitat fragmentation on migrating birds, insects and bats. GloBAM has also made significant advancements in using weather radars for biodiversity monitoring, expanding its applications for scientists, policymakers, and the public. The project’s findings contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and support conservation efforts in the airspace.

Why a Prize for Excellence and Impact?

The Biodiversa Prize for Excellence and Impact has been awarded since 2018 to showcase the achievements of Biodiversa-funded projects that have produced excellent science with concrete impacts for policy and/or society.

 

To date, eight projects have won the Prize and the results of their research have been featured in animated videos. They serve multiple purposes:

  • To acknowledge and highlight the quality of the project’s research findings and engagement work, and support the dissemination of their work to the scientific community and to a larger audience.
  • To give a concrete example of Biodiversa’s approach to promoting scientific excellence hand in hand with policy and societal relevance. Scientists applying to future Biodiversa+ calls can be inspired by the results of the awarded projects which published an extensive list of high-level papers and were particularly successful in engaging policy and societal actors at local, national and EU level throughout the project’s duration and beyond.
  • To showcase the added-value of European (and even international) research projects that allow researchers to work simultaneously on a common topic in different countries and have concrete impacts on the ground.
All Biodiversa Prize editions