Additional activities for the European Biodiversity Partnership: Biodiversa+

Expected Outcome:

The third instalment of the partnership is expected to further contribute to the expected outcomes specified in topics HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18, for continuation of the activities in line with already agreed outcomes. In addition, during the third instalment, the partnership is also expected to contribute to the objectives of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation and of the European Climate Law.

Scope:

The objective of this action is to continue to provide support to the European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+ identified in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 and implemented under the previous topics HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18, and in particular to fund additional activities (which may also be undertaken by additional partners) in view of its intended scope and duration, and in accordance with Article 24(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation. It is expected that the partnership’s additional activities will contribute to the objectives of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation and of the European Climate Law by developing innovative solutions for the restoration of ecosystems that can maintain and enhance natural carbon sinks and by further developing nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation measures.

The consortium which applied to and received funding under HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18 is uniquely placed to submit a proposal to continue the envisioned partnership. Not only did this consortium submit the proposal leading to the identification of the partnership in the Horizon Europe strategic planning 2021-2024, it has also implemented the partnership through co-funded annual calls in years 2021-2024 based on this planning and further to topics HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18. In this context, the current consortium has particular expertise in relation to the objectives of the Partnership, the activities to be implemented in particular FSTP calls or other calls/scope of calls clearly required/envisioned pursuant to initial proposal/partnership, and other relevant aspects of the action. In practice, another consortium could not continue the activities of the Partnership underway without significant disruption to the ongoing activities, if at all.

The scope of the application for this call on the European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+ should focus on the flagship programmes 2025-27 according to the partnership’s co-created strategic research and innovation agenda for seven years, which includes calls for research projects, biodiversity- and ecosystems monitoring and science-based policy advisory activities, and all horizontal activities to allow the Partnership to operate and to achieve its five specific objectives.

It is expected that the partnership continues to organise joint calls on an annual base and therefore it should factor ample time to run the co-funded projects. It should build on, and widen, the data availability in European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud.

The partnership should collaborate closely with the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity and the Science Service project BioAgora. The partnership should also seek to collaborate with EU space programmes (Copernicus, Galileo) to foster the use of emerging or operational space technologies for policy development. Moreover, the partnership should describe specific activities foreseen in order to strengthen the complementarities with other related Missions and Partnerships.

While the award of a grant to continue the Partnership in accordance with this call should be based on a proposal submitted by the coordinator of the consortium funded under HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18, and the additional activities (which may include additional partners) to be funded by the grant should be subject to an evaluation, this evaluation should take into account the existing context and the scope of the initial evaluation as relevant, and related obligations enshrined in the grant agreement.

Taking into account that the present action is a continuation of topic HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01 and HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-18, and foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should also present in a separate document the additional activities and any additional partners to be covered by the award in terms of how they would be reflected in the grant agreement.

The partnership should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes with a view to implementing joint calls for transnational proposals resulting in grants to third parties.