BiodivERsA is an ERA Net involving 19 major research funding agencies from 15 countries in Europe with significant research funding in the field of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity. Most ERA-Net members are represented in other fora which discuss and recommend requirements for European biodiversity research: including the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD-SBSTTA), Diversitas, the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) and the European Science Foundation (ESF). Recommendations from these fora are often made without a formal mechanism to ensure connection with the strategies, priorities and budgets of national research funding agencies.

The aim of BiodivERsA is to contribute to setting up such a mechanism, and its objective for the period 2004-2008 is to achieve an efficient trans-national research co-operation in the field of biodiversity research funding. With the aim of contributing to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, BiodivERsA will allow the funding agencies to collate existing activities, compare future strategies and recommendations of consultative bodies, and systematically explore opportunities for future collaboration.

BiodivERsA will also contribute to better coherence and increased synergies between the national programmes of cooperation with developing countries in the field of biodiversity research funding.

In order to achieve this, BiodivERsA will proceed through seven stages:

• inventory, description and classification of biodiversity research programmes and research funding programmes of ERA-Net members.
• information gathering and linkage of ERA-Net members funding programmes with developing countries
• identification of best practices to be compared, shared and implemented among the participants.
• identification of the existing opportunities for cooperation ; identification of administrative, legal and technical barriers to cooperation.
• implementation of collaborative planning, joint activities, training, career-development and assessment.
• initiation of mutually open research call on biodiversity issues.
• development of proposals for management of a sustainable pan-European biodiversity research.