EUROPA BON

Partners

All partners in EuropaBON have high-level and complementary expertise in the different areas of the project, ranging from networking and cost-effectiveness analysis, biodiversity monitoring, modelling and analysis, to stakeholder engagement, policy support and dissemination.
Geographic distribution of the partners and their thematic expertise
The consortium includes the following partners:

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (MLU)

PI: Henrique Pereira

WPs/Tasks: Project coordination (lead), EuropaBON showcases: from observations to policy support tools (lead)

Contact

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

PI: Ian McCallum

WPs/Tasks: Stakeholder engagement (lead)

Contact

Centre de recerca ecològica i aplicacions forestals (CREAF)

PI: Lluís Brotons

WPs/Tasks: Assessment of existing monitoring capability in Europe (lead)

Contact

Universiteit van Amsterdam (UVA)

PI: Daniel Kissling

WPs/Tasks: Co-Design of monitoring system (lead)

Contact

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ)

PI: Ingolf Kühn

PI: Aletta Bonn

WPs/Tasks: User & policy needs assessment; Co-design of monitoring system

Contact | Contact

Joint Research Centre - European Commission (JRC)

PI: Joachim Maes

WPs/Tasks: Establishing the ToR of a Biodiversity Monitoring Coordination Centre (lead)

Contact

Vlaamse Instelling voor technologisch Onderzoek N.V. (VITO)

PI: Bruno Smets

WPs/Tasks: Stakeholder engagement, Assessment of existing monitoring capability in Europe, Co-Design of monitoring system (support)

Contact

Norsk Institutt for Vannforskning (NIVA)

PI: Anne Lyche Solheim

WPs/Tasks: Synergies with the Water Framework Directive (lead)

Contact

Instituto de Ciencias, tecnologias e Agroambiente da Universidade do Porto (ICETA)

PI: Pedro Beja

WPs/Tasks: Identification of monitoring gaps (lead)

Contact

PENSOFT Publishers

PI: Pavel Stoev

WPs/Tasks: Knowledge Management, Communication and Dissemination (lead)

Contact

The University of Reading

PI: Simon Potts

WPs/Tasks: Cost-effectiveness analysis of monitoring schemes, Benefits of a EuropaBON (lead)

Contact

University of St Andrews

PI: Maria Dornelas

WPs/Tasks: Novel technologies for biodiversity monitoring (lead)

Contact

University of Tartu

PI: Leho Tedersoo

WPs/Tasks: Assessment of existing monitoring capability in Europe, Co-Design of monitoring system (support)

Contact

De Vlinderstichting

PI: Roy H. A. van Grunsven

WPs/Tasks: Assessment of existing monitoring capability in Europe (support)

Contact

Universidade de Lisboa (IGOT UL)

PI: Cesar Capinha

WPs/Tasks: BON in support of the Bioeconomy Strategy (and support in WPs2, 3, 4)

Contact

Advisory Board

EuropaBONs advisory board (AB) provides scientific feedback and advice on scientific challenges and demands to the consortium coordination team (CC), which includes the project coordinator and all work package and task leads.
The CC meets at least yearly with the AB at the Consortium Assembly to discuss scientific progress and conceptual development.

The advisory board includes the following experts:

Markus Erhard

European Environment Agency

Markus Erhard from European Environment Agency is one of the coordinators of MAES together with A. Teller of DG ENV and J. Maes of JRC. He has the oversight within EEA to link the project partners to relevant colleagues in the EEA and the topic centres for specific aspects on freshwater, marine, urban and terrestrial biodiversity.

Dr. Jan-Erik Petersen

European Environment Agency

Dr. Jan-Erik Petersen is the Head of Spatial Assessment Team at the European Environment Agency. EEA is a key partner when making proposals for a data infrastructure that should underpin the monitoring system, as they have the potential capacity and needed expertise to implement EuropaBON (given additional resources).

Anne Teller

Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENV)

Anne Teller from DG ENV has agreed to take a seat in the Advisory Board. DG ENV is a key stakeholder as they are the authority for the design and implementation of biodiversity policies in the EU.

Dr. Veronika Vysna

Eurostat

Dr. Veronika Vysna is a statistical officer at unit ESTAT.E.2 (Environmental statistics and accounts, sustainable development) at Eurostat. She is the day to day manager and coordinator of the KIP INCA project (in concert with the head of unit Unit E2 - Environmental statistics and accounts; Sustainable development). She will advise the project on how to best link up with INCA but also how to tailor monitoring for accounting purposes (in collaboration with JRC, EEA, RTD and ENV). Above all, she can advise EuropaBON on specific requirements for Eurostat data, which are official datasets for EU policy support. Her unit is also engaged in the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the EU and she can liaise the project with the LUCAS monitoring system of Eurostat, an in-situ monitoring network with over two million sampling stations.

Tim Hirsch

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

Tim Hirsch is Deputy Director and Head of Participation of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Through its network of national and thematic nodes, GBIF will provide support to EuropaBON in mobilizing species-related data and biodiversity data-sharing. GBIF also provides an invaluable network of data contributors to be engaged in the design of the Europa-wide framework for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. Dr. Patricia Tiago of the University of Lisbon and founder of the citizen science platform Biodiversity4All, will advise EuropaBON on the use of citizen science databases, and share her knowledge on biodiversity monitoring, trends for biodiversity change, and biodiversity monitoring schemes. Biodiversity4All is maintained by Associação Biodiversidade Para Todos, and the Portuguese node of iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.

Prof. Xavier Le Roux

French Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA)

Prof. Xavier Le Roux, lead scientist of the European Biodiversity Partnership (EBP), coordinator of BiodivERsA and senior scientist (DR1) in ecology at the French Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) will advise EuropaBON on drafting an SRA in support of the implementation of the BMCC and associated monitoring schemes. EuropaBON will benefit from consulting BiodivERsA’s extensive database on European Research & Innovation projects and biodiversity research infrastructures and their collaboration with key initiatives, such as OPPLA, EKLIPSE and ThinkNature and its successor NetworkNature throughout the project and particularly during stakeholder engagement.

Hilde Eggermont

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

coming soon

Prof. Bernhard Seeger

Philipps-Universität Marburg

Prof. Bernhard Seeger is a computer scientist and the Dean of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Philipps-Universität Marburg and co-founder of Geo Engine – a new start-up company specialising in the efficient processing of large spatio-temporal data sets. His knowledge and expertise on methods for processing and analyzing large data sets and event streams will be invaluable to EuropaBON.

Prof. Richard Gregory

University College London

Prof. Richard Gregory is head of Species Monitoring and Research at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Centre for Conservation Science and holds an Honorary Professorship at the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER) at University College London. Richard Gregory is an expert in survey design, biodiversity monitoring and indicators, citizen science, climatic change impacts, conservation priorities, measuring natural capital, ecosystem services, alien invasive species, and the impacts of predation and wildlife diseases.

Prof. Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer

Natural Capital Project

Prof. Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer is a lead scientist for the Natural Capital Project, co-appointed at the University of Minnesota and Stanford University. Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer’s research focuses on global ecosystem service assessment, linking earth observations and ecosystem service modeling. She is also a Coordinating Lead Author on the upcoming Values Assessment for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and a member of the Expert Working Group Consulting on NASA Biological Diversity and Ecological Forecasting Programs.

Philippe Vercruysse de Solart

Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg

Philippe Vercruysse de Solart is a Global Technology Strategist with Microsoft. He is a a trusted advisor for all EU institutions and engages with business and IT decision makers to articulate how Microsoft can enable them to achieve their IT and business goals. His focus spans a broad number of topics going from innovation through data, to modern secure collaboration and cognitive services.

Marc Paganini

European Space Agency

Marc Paganini serves as technical officer in the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA). He is member of the Science, Application and Future Technologies Department working on Earth Observations (EO) exploitation and services development. He has more than 25 years of experience in EO satellite missions at ESA, working first as a ground segment system engineer, responsible for payload data processing and instrument calibration. In 2000, he joined the ESRIN establishment in Frascati (Rome) and has been working for the last 15+ years in elaborating, organising and managing user-oriented applications and novel information services, with the objective to provide the user community at large with reliable, timely and continuous information about the Earth and its environment.

Work packages

EuropaBON is a 3-year project.
It is structured into five different work packages (WPs), each subdivided into specific tasks.
Each WP has a WP leader and each task has a task leader.

WP leaders

WP1: Henrique Pereira

MLU/iDiv

Henrique Pereira is professor for biodiversity conservation at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and an invited professor at InBio/CiBio-University of Porto. Together with the scientific and administrative coordinators, as well as the management support team, he will coordinate EuropaBON and lead WP1. He will also support the research activities in all other WPs, and lead tasks in WP4 and WP5.

Co-lead: Gabriela Popova (Pensoft)

WP2: Ian McCallum

IIASA

At IIASA, Ian McCallum contributes to numerous research projects applying geo-spatial analysis to global environmental problems. He helped develop the Geo-Wiki, a globally recognized Citizen Science platform for Earth observation. His research interests lie along areas of environmental monitoring, earth observation, citizen science, the carbon cycle and natural hazards. He will coordinate the role of IIASA in leading WP2 on Stakeholder Involvement, along with contributing to the WP5 use case on the Habitat Directive via citizen science.

Co-lead: Aletta Bonn (UFZ)

WP3: Lluis Brotons

CREAF

Lluis Brotons is a CSIC senior researcher, at the InForest JRU (CREAF-CTFC). Within EuropaBON, he will lead the development of WP3 on the assessment of existing monitoring capability in Europe and lead two of the tasks in this WP (tasks 3.1., 3.3 and 5.1).

Co-lead: Pedro Beja (ICETA)

WP4: Daniel Kissling

UvA

Daniel Kissling is associate professor for quantitative biodiversity science at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He will lead WP4 of the EuropaBON project and be responsible for developing the co-design of the monitoring system.

Co-leads: Maria Azeredo de Dornelas (USTAN) & Tom Breeze (UREAD)

WP5: Nestor Fernandez

MLU/iDiv

Nestor Fernandez is a researcher at iDiv/MLU, as well as an external lecturer at the University Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla. He leads the production of data and metadata standards for the EBVs and coordinates the development of the GEO BON EBV Portal. In EuropaBON, he will lead and coordinate WP5 and support research activities in various tasks in WP3 and WP4.

Co-leads: Anne Lyche Solheim (NIVA) & Cesar Capinha (IGOT UL)

Task leaders

T1.1 Karolin Dietrich/ Henrique Pereira/ Jessi Junker

T1.2 Christian Langer

T1.3 Henrique Pereira/ Jessi Junker

T1.4 Pensoft

T2.1 Ian McCallum/ Juliette Martin

T2.2 Aletta Bonn/ Postdoc

T2.3 Inian Moorthy/ Juliette Martin

T2.4 Joachim Maes

T2.5 Pensoft

T3.1 Lluis Brotons

T3.2 Pedro Beja

T3.3 Lluis Brotons

T3.4 Tom Breeze

T4.1 Henrique Pereira/ Laetitia Navarro/ Nestor Fernandez

T4.2 Maria Dornelas/ Cher Chow

T4.3 Daniel Kissling/ Postdoc

T4.4 Tom Breeze

T5.1 Lluis Brotons

T5.2 Helge Bruelheide

T5.3 Anne Lyche Solheim

T5.4 Carlos Guerra/ Henrique Pereira

T5.5 César Capinha

T5.6 Nestor Fernandez/ Henrique Pereira

WP1 oversees the coordination and management of the project. Stakeholder engagement (WP2) is the hub of the project in which identified critical stakeholders will be engaged into assessment (WP3) and co-design (WP4) processes of the project, as well as in drafting policy support (WP5).

Illustration of work packages and tasks and how they link/interrelate.

While WP2 is the ‘heart’ of EuropaBON, WP3 and WP4 will deliver on the call. Drawing on the user needs identified in WP2, WP3 assesses different sources for existing biodiversity monitoring data in Europe to identify their current gaps and bottlenecks in terms of thematic content, spatial and temporal coverage, data flows and availability, as well as cost-effectiveness. WP4 builds on WP3 to deliver a new design for biodiversity monitoring in Europe, by improving existing monitoring schemes to become more representative, maximize benefits and become better integrated into wider biodiversity policy.

The new design will close existing temporal, spatial and thematic data gaps by integrating multiple monitoring sources with EBV modelling and various new technologies at national and European level, in dialogue with major stakeholders. The policy examples showcased in WP5 will demonstrate how EuropaBON could contribute to various major environmental policies of the EU by using the new design from WP4. The work in WP3-5 is always developed in a dialog with stakeholders facilitated by WP2 to assess whether the deliverables produced by the project meet the user requirements. Ultimately a coalition with key stakeholders will be formed to trigger the establishment of ToR for a Biodiversity Monitoring Coordination Center to implement EuropaBON after the project ends.

About

Learn more about EuropaBONs mission, its objectives and project coordination

News

News about EuropaBON

Partners

EUROPA BON

Europa Biodiversity Observation Network: integrating data streams to support policy

Advisory Board

Markus Erhard

Dr. Jan-Erik Petersen

Anne Teller

Dr. Veronika Vysna

Tim Hirsch

Prof. Xavier Le Roux

Hilde Eggermont

Prof. Bernhard Seeger

Prof. Richard Gregory

Prof. Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer

Philippe Vercruysse de Solart

Marc Paganini

Work packages

EuropaBON is a 3-year project.It is structured into five different work packages (WPs), each subdivided into specific tasks. Each WP has a WP leader and each task has a task leader.

WP leaders

WP1: Henrique Pereira

WP2: Ian McCallum

WP3: Lluis Brotons

WP4: Daniel Kissling

WP5: Nestor Fernandez

Task leaders

Documents

A list of documents relating to the project for download

EuropaBON is a 3-year project.
It is structured into five different work packages (WPs), each subdivided into specific tasks.
Each WP has a WP leader and each task has a task leader.