Biodiversity scenarios

Evaluating and improving the sustainability of the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services is a major challenge of our time all over the world. Scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services have been a key component of forward-looking decision making as they contribute to i) better understanding and synthesizing a broad range of observations, ii) informing decision makers about future impacts of global changes such as climate change, land use change, resource overuse, invasive alien species or pollution, iii) providing decision support by developing adaptive management strategies, and iv) evaluating the implications of alternative social-economic development pathways and policy options.

Development of scenarios for biodiversity and ecosystem services, based on the understanding and modelling of their dynamics and the evaluation and reanalysis of past changes, is beginning to receive high priority in the research policy of the majority of countries worldwide. In this context, aligning research agendas and implementing them through international calls will promote synergies and optimal use of the available expertise and resources, avoiding duplication and ensuring robust outcomes of global relevance. To attain this, BiodivERsA is opening to third country partners and the Belmont Forum provides an excellent platform for international collaboration.

Scope

Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (and as needed local and regional) research programmes with a view to implementing a joint call for proposals with EU co-funding resulting in grants to third parties. The proposal should include other joint and follow-up activities, including possibly additional joint call(s) without EU co-funding. The proposal should demonstrate that these co-funded other activities exclude any overlaps with ongoing actions of this ERA-NET co-funded by the EC. Actions should build on the strategic roadmap of BiodivERsA ERA-NET Cofund and launch at least one international call on biodiversity and ecosystem services scenarios in collaboration with the Belmont Forum specifically to promote trans-continental collaboration. Cooperation and coordination with other ERA-NETs and/or JPIs to increase synergies on cross-cutting issues, where appropriate, is encouraged.

Participation of legal entities from international partner countries and/or regions, particularly from countries participating in the Belmont Forum, is encouraged in the joint call as well as in other joint activities without EU co-funding. For the co-ordination costs of additional activities only, participants from countries which are not automatically eligible for funding may nonetheless request a Union contribution (on the basis of the ERA-NET unit cost).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 7 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact

Actions are expected to lead to:

• the alignment of research and innovation agendas in the area of scenario development for biodiversity and ecosystem services and co-ordinated streamlining of the implementation of at least one call;
• enhanced excellence and global relevance of research and innovation activities on biodiversity and ecosystem services, improving the relevance and value of advances made in developing socio-economic scenarios and models of global change impacts on the dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem services for decision makers at multiple scales;
• increased visibility of European biodiversity scientific community and research outcomes at international level;
• strong and lasting alliance with the funding agencies of key international partners for research and innovation actions on biodiversity and ecosystem services (e.g Brazil, China, India, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, USA);
• link with possible assessments as those conducted, e.g., by the IPBES to induce a wider, worldwide and regional use of scenarios to better assess future, plausible trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services and explore the role that nature-based solutions may play;
• contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 15 'Protection, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss'.

Cross-cutting Priorities

• ERA-NET
• International cooperation
• Socio-economic science and humanities