The European Biodiversity Partnership, Biodiversa+, a consortium in which the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge participates, has resolved its call for research for the protection of biodiversity (BiodivProtect), which will support 36 projects. The Biodiversity Foundation will financially support three of them, linked to marine biodiversity, which will have an endowment of almost 800,000 euros, of which the European Commission will contribute around 25% of the total funded. The projects funded by the Biodiversity Foundation are EUROSYNG, PETRI-MED and SponBIODIV. EUROSYNG: Promoting action on broad ocean challenges by delving into the past, present, and future of European syngnathids aims to provide a clear picture of the status of seahorse populations in Europe (health status, connectivity and migratory potential) to help Member States comply with IUCN resolutions and to assist in the creation of marine protected areas. The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria participates in this initiative and receives funding of €199,600. The PETRI-MED project: Plankton biodiversity through remote sensing and omics in the Mediterranean Sea aims to develop strategies and combine methods in novel ways to determine and monitor the status and trends of microbial plankton biodiversity across the Mediterranean Sea. It is coordinated by the Spanish National Research Council, and the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology participates. Both organizations receive €299,857 and €50,000 respectively. The SponBIODIV: Marine sponge biodiversity from genes to ecosystems: delivering knowledge and tools for sustainable management and conservation initiative will establish a trans-European and pan-Atlantic network of research organisations to jointly produce, analyse, synthesize and provide a common and standardised knowledge base on the biodiversity, biogeography and connectivity patterns of sponges and their habitats in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The Society of Friends of the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the Higher Council for Scientific Research are participating, receiving €97,175 and €149,905, respectively. The BiodivProtect call was launched in 2021 and is focused on research for the protection of ecosystems, endowed with just over 41 million euros in total. Recently, the management committee of this international call agreed to finance 36 transnational projects, 20 of which have a Spanish partner, which have started in the first quarter of 2023. The Spanish projects will be funded by the Biodiversity Foundation, which will provide the necessary funding to support these 3 proposals, and by the State Research Agency, which supports another 17 proposals.

European Biodiversity Partnership, Biodiversa+

The European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) is one of the key actions of the European Union’s Biodiversity Strategy 2030 (under the framework programme for research and innovation (I+I) for the period 2021 -2027, Horizon Europe. Biodiversa+, action 81 of the European Biodiversity Strategy, aims to return European biodiversity to the path of recovery by 2030, through the implementation of an ambitious programme of actions including: financing research projects of excellent quality and great impact on society; establishing a harmonised European network of biodiversity observatories; supporting the implementation of Nature-based Solutions by the private sector; better connect R+I with governance; and promoting the EU’s role in R+I on biodiversity at global level. It started on 1 October 2021 and is made up of 74 entities from 36 countries and aims to foster cooperation and coordination of research activities and policies developed in Member States and Associated States through their respective national and regional research programmes. The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is one of the Spanish funding bodies in the joint international research calls that Biodiversa+ will launch each year, together with the State Research Agency (AEI) and the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).