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2021-2022 Joint Call
Supporting the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems across land and sea

In October 2021, Biodiversa+ launched its BiodivProtect call on “Supporting the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems across land and sea”.
The call – aiming at supporting 3-years transnational research projects – was co-funded by the European Commission and addressed the three (non-exclusive) themes below:

  • Knowledge for identifying priority conservation areas, establishing effective and resilient ecological networks, enhancing species-based protection and preserving genetic diversity
  • Multiple benefits and costs of biodiversity and ecosystem protection: synergies and trade-offs
  • Effective management and equitable governance to deliver bold conservation outcome
Original call text

In total, 209 eligible pre-proposals and 106 full proposals were received and evaluated by an independent Evaluation Committee who ranked the projects.

Strictly following the ranking established by the independent Evaluation Committee, 36 research projects were funded by the Biodiversa+ Call Steering Committee – composed of all the funding organisations participating to the call – representing a total funding amount of over 44 Mio€ (including funding from the European Commission).

The 36 funded projects are academically excellent projects, mobilising a wide range of disciplines, engaging many relevant stakeholders, and addressing various pressing scientific and societal issues.

BiodivProtect
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36 funded projects
  • ALPMEMA: ALPine Mountain Hay MEadows MAnagement: Best practices to maintain their Favorable Conservation Status against underuse under different property right regimes inside and  outside protected areas (SE, AM, AT, DE, DK)
  • ARCTIC FOX EUROPE: Identifying effective management strategies for enhancing trans-national metapopulation protection of the Arctic Fox in mainland Europe (NO, FI, SE)
  • BECOME: Biospheres as Effective Conservation Measures (NO, CA, CL, FR, PT, SE, ZA)
  • BIO-JUST: BIOdiversity and ecosystem protection driven by Environmental JUSTice (DE, BR, ES, FR, NL, PT)
  • BridgingVALUES: “Just” conservation? Bridging values for equitable biodiversity governance (ES, BR, CH, DE, SE, ZA)
  • Climate invasives: Minimizing the negative effects of climate change-induced spread of invasive alien species to marine protected areas (SE, DK, NO)
  • ConservES: Living-lab approach to floral enrichment as a tool to conserve biodiversity and maximising ecosystem services in European agricultural landscapes (FR, BE, CZ, DE)
  • DarCo: The vertical dimension of conservation: A cost-effective plan to incorporate subterranean ecosystems in post-2020 biodiversity and climate change agendas (IT, AT, BE, CH, DE, ES, FI, FR, PT (Azores), RO, SI)
  • Detect2Protect: New approaches in determining the impacts of chemical pollution to protect the biodiversity of the Baltic Sea (FI, EE, IT, LT, LV, PL, SE)
  • DiviN-P: Protecting plant diversity via stoichiometric nutrient networks across Europe (NL, BE, ES, IT)
  • EUROPAM: European Spatial-Temporal Large Scale Sea Noise Management Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Marine Megafauna (FR, IT, NO, PT (Azores))
  • EUROSYNG: Promoting action on broad ocean challenges by delving into the past, present and future of European syngnathids (PT, DE, ES, FR, GR, IT, PT (Azores),SE)
  • eWHALE: Combining environmental DNA sampling, whale watching and citizen science for stakeholder-driven marine biodiversity protection in the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean (AT, FR, IE, IS, IT, NO, PT (Azores))
  • FORESCUE: Innovative approaches FOr RESCUE and management of algal forests in the Mediterranean Sea (IT, BE, ES, FR, GR, PT)
  • FUNACTION: Aquatic FUNgal biodiversity: developing knowledge and strAtegies to inform ConservaTION priorities and measures (SE, CH, DE, EE, IT, PT, US)
  • FuncNet: Improving the Functional Connectivity of Grassland Networks for Plant-Pollinator Interactions (EE, BE, CZ, DE, SE)
  • G4B: Grasslands for biodiversity: supporting the protection of the biodiversity-rich grasslands and related management practices in the Alps and Carpathians (CH, DE, IT (Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen), PL, RO, SK, UA)
  • GaP: Guiding expansion of protection under the EU Biodiversity Strategy: Threatened species and novel methods for Key Biodiversity Area identification (GR, DE, DK, ES, IT, UK)
  • GreeNet: Grassland conservation across European landscapes protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services with ecological networks (AT, CH, DE, EE, IE, NO)
  • INSPIRE: INtegrated Spatial PlannIng across REalms for biodiversity and human development in a context of change (ES, AT, CH, GR, IT, PT, UK)
  • INTEGRADIV: Efficient conservation of Mediterranean forests: an integrative assessment of the drivers and vulnerability of multi-taxa, multi-facet and multi-scale biodiversity patterns (FR, DK, ES, GR, IT, NL)
  • MicroEco: MicroEco Microbial Diversity, Ecosystem Services of the Soil Microbiome and Ecosystem Conservation (FI, BR, EE, ES, FR, IT, RS)
  • MOVE: Movescapes, connectivity hotspots and eco-evolutionary dynamics: protecting the functional role of predatory coastal fishes (NO, ES, FR, PT)
  • MUrFor: Managing sustainable sea urchin fishery and marine forest conservation (IT, DE, ES, FR)
  • PAREUS: Providing Adaptive knowledge for Ratcheting up the EU Biodiversity strategy for Sustainable landscapes and protected areas (NO, FR, SK)
  • PETRI-MED: Plankton biodiversity through remote sensing and omics in the Mediterranean Sea (ES, FR, IL, IT, SI)
  • PrioritIce: Vanishing habitats: conservation priorities for glacier-related biodiversity threatened by climate change (IT, CH, FR, PL)
  • ProPartS: Developing strategies for the protection of taxa consisting of interconnected sexual and parthenogenetic reproducing strains (DE, AT, ES, IT)
  • RECONNECT: Reconciling fragmented and contested landscapes (SE, BE, DE, FI, FR, ZA)
  • RecoSal: Recovering diversity in salmon populations and cultures of fishing: the subarctic River Teno basin as a confluence and a Living Lab (FI, NO, SE)
  • RIPARIANET: Prioritising riparian ecotones to sustain and connect multiple biodiversity and functional components in river networks (DE, ES, IT, PT, SE)
  • SPEAR: Scenarios for Protecting European Avian Redistributions (NO, BE, CH, DE, DK, ES, FI, NL, SE, UK)
  • SponBIODIV: Marine sponge biodiversity from genes to ecosystems: delivering knowledge and tools for sustainable management and conservation (PT, BR, ES, FR, GR, NO, SE, ZA)
  • TRANSNATURE: Transboundary governance models of biodiversity protection: case studies for an enhanced protection of natural resources in Europe (IT (Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen), BE, ES, FI)
  • TransWILD: Transformative wildlife management to enhance biodiversity protection and ecosystem services provision in shared and protected multi-use landscapes across Europe (DE, BG, ES, IT, NO)
  • Wolfness: Preserving the natural heritage of wolves: a multidisciplinary approach towards effective and socially acceptable management of wolf-dog hybridization across Europe (IT, DE, ES, PT, SE, SI, TR).
Evaluation Committee
Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee
  • Chair of the Committee: Kathy MacKinnon
  • Vice-Chair of the Committee: Judith Fisher
Other members of the committee

Scientific experts (23)

  • Kofi Akamani
  • Susan Baker
  • Uta Berger
  • Erika Berenguer
  • Luigi Boitani (step 1 only)
  • Dan Brockington
  • Lena Gustafsson
  • Stephen Hawkins
  • Iryna Herzon
  • Marc Hockings
  • Valdo Kuusemets
  • Hefin Jones
  • Thomas Lacher
  • Julia Leventon
  • Ana Lillebø
  • Richard Nichols
  • Lina Mtwana Nordlund
  • Nova Mieszkowska
  • Piotr Nowicki
  • Karen Richardson (step 1 only)
  • John Robinson
  • Andrew Tanentzap
  • Stephen Woodley

Policy/management experts (22)

  • Gemma Boetekees
  • Karma Bouazza
  • Peter Bridgewater
  • Claire Brown
  • Sue Collins
  • Roberto Crosti
  • Charly Facheux Tchoufong
  • Adriana Ford
  • Simon Gardner
  • Ana Maria Hernandez Salgar
  • Katia Hueso
  • Lawrence Jones-Walter
  • Manuel Lago
  • Vinod Mathur
  • Angela Morgado
  • Monipher Musasa
  • Valerie Nelson
  • Nicholas Ozor
  • Kent Redford (step 1 only)
  • Sunandan Tiwari
  • James Watson
  • Alison Woodley
Funding Organisations

38 funding organisations from 28 countries (including Azores and Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen) fund one or several research teams in this joint Call; and in total, 45 funding organisations from 34 countries participated to this Call.

General contact point for the follow-up of the funded projects: Matěj Štěpánek (TA CR, Czech Republic)

Country

Funding organisation

Acronym

Name

Email
Austria Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung FWF Iris Fortmann iris.fortmann@fwf.ac.at
Belgium Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique Scientifique BELSPO Aline van der Werf aline.vanderwerf@belspo.be
Belgium (Flanders) Fonds Voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen FWO Toon Monbaliu europe@fwo.be
Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels) Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS Joël Groeneveld joel.groeneveld@frs-fnrs.be
Bulgaria Bulgarian National Science Fund BNSF Milena Aleksandrova aleksandrova@mon.bg
Brazil Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies CONFAP Elisa Natola elisa.confap@gmail.com
Brazil Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq Dileine Amaral da Cunha dileine.cunha@cnpq.br
Czech Republic Technology Agency of the Czech Republic TA CR Matej Stepanek matej.stepanek@tacr.cz
Denmark Innovation Fund Denmark IFD Kathrine Hauge Madsen

Aila Lonka

 kathrine.hauge.madsen@innofond.dk

aila.lonka@innofond.dk
Estonia Sihtasutus Eesti Teadusagentuur ETAg Margit Suuroja margit.suuroja@etag.ee
Estonia Estonian Ministry of the Environment MoE_EE Raili Allmäe raili.allmae@envir.ee
Estonia Estonian Ministry of Rural Affairs MEM Epp Eisler epp.eisler@agri.ee
Finland Suomen Akatemia AKA Harri Hautala harri.hautala@aka.fi
Finland Ministry of the Environment MoE_FI Tanja Suni tanja.suni@ym.fi
France Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR Sophie Germann sophie.germann@agencerecherche.fr
Germany VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH on behalf of BMBF VDI/VDE-IT (on behalf of BMBF) Rainer Schliep rainer.schliep@vdivde-it.de
Germany Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V. DFG Gaby Rerig gaby.rerig@dfg.de
Greece General Secretariat for Research and Innovation GSRI Anna Rosenberg a.rosenberg@gsrt.gr
Hungary Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal NKFIH Krisztina HOLLÓSI krisztina.hollosi@nkfih.gov.hu
Iceland Icelandic Centre for Research RANNIS Aegir Thor Thorsson aegir.t.thorsson@rannis.is
Ireland Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland Irish EPA Caroline Wynne

Darragh O’Neill

 C.Wynne@epa.ie

Da.ONeill@epa.ie
Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection MoEP Orna Matzner orna@sviva.gov.il
Italy Ministry of Universities and Research MUR Yasmine Iollo yasmine.iollo@est.mur.gov.it
Italy Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen PROV.BZ Laura Cherchi Laura.Cherchi@provincia.bz.it
Latvia Latvian Council of Science LCS Maija Bundule maija.bundule@lzp.gov.lv
Lithuania Lietuvos mokslo taryba LMT Viktoras Mongirdas viktoras.mongirdas@lmt.lt
Moldova National Agency for Research and Development NARD Viorica Boaghi

Olga Davidenco

Vadim Iatchevici

 viorica.boaghi@ancd.gov.md

olga.davidenco@ancd.gov.md

vadim.iatchevici@ancd.gov.md
Morocco Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research MENFPESRS Nihale EL AZZOUZI

Abdelouahid EZZARFI

Anas CHOKAIRI

Jihane BENARAFA

 elazzouzi.enssup@gmail.com

a.ezzarfi@yahoo.fr

chokairi.anas@gmail.com

jbenarafadrsi@gmail.com
Netherlands Dutch Research Council NWO Ron Winkler r.winkler@nwo.nl
Norway Research Council of Norway RCN Marit H. Heller mhe@rcn.no
Poland Narodowe Centrum Nauki NCN Mateusz Sobczyk

Anna Kotarba

 mateusz.Sobczyk@ncn.gov.pl

anna.kotarba@ncn.gov.pl
Portugal Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia FCT Joana Pinheiro

Pedro Ferreira

 joana.pinheiro@fct.pt

pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.pt
Portugal – Azores Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia FRCT Carolina Parelho

Renato Pires

 carolina.pf.parelho@azores.gov.pt

renato.hm.pires@azores.gov.pt
Romania Unitatea Executivă pentru Finanțarea Învățământului Superior, a Cercetării, Dezvoltării și Inovării UEFISCDI Adrian Asanica

Luciana Bratu

Andreea Popa

 adrian.asanica@uefiscdi.ro

luciana.bratu@uefiscdi.ro

andreea.popa@uefiscdi.ro
Slovakia Slovak Academy of Sciences SAS Zuzana Panisová panisova@up.upsav.sk
Slovenia Ministry of Education, Science and Sport MIZS Katja Ceglar katja.ceglar@gov.si
South Africa Department of Science and Innovation DSI Tugela Matubatuba

Karabo Mphogo

 Tugela.matubatuba@dst.gov.za

Karabo.Mphogo@dst.gov.za
Spain Fundación Biodiversidad FB Sandra Blázquez

Carmen Gutiérrez

Javier Remiro

 biodiversa@fundacion-biodiversidad.es
Spain Agencia Estatal de Investigación AEI Patricia Vera Bravo

Esther Chacón

 era-medioambiente@aei.gob.es
Sweden The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning Formas Osman Tikansak osman.tikansak@formas.se
Switzerland Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF Claudia Ellenrieder

Madlen Korneli

 claudia.ellenrieder@snf.ch

madlen.korneli@snf.ch
Taiwan National Science and Technology Council NSTC Ching-Mei, Tang cmtom@nstc.gov.tw
Tunisia Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research MHESR Hayet Souai

Saida Rafrafi

 souaihayet@gmail.com

coopint2@gmail.com
Türkiye Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry TAGEM Fatma SARSU

Aysun Mete

 fatma.sarsu@tarimorman.gov.tr

aysun.mete@tarimorman.gov.tr
Türkiye Turkiye Bilimsel Ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu TUBITAK Yeliz TÜMBİLEN ÖZER yeliz.ozer@tubitak.gov.tr