BiodivERsA aims to network Biodiversity Research Funding Agencies, in Europe, in order to:

• Develop a durable partnership in research funding policy and practice between the research funding partner organisations.
• Increase co-operation between national programmes, developing a transnational research funding programme between the research funding partner organisations.
• Build a platform of co-operation which can be extended to other European countries and contribute to the coordination of biodiversity research funding policies of the Member States in cooperation with developing countries.

The specific objectives of BiodivERsA are summarised as:

• Map European agencies who are funding Biodiversity research programs and establish a common searchable database on it available for all EU citizen.
• Contribute to the development of an European Biodiversity Research Policy, identifying future priority research areas for collaboration, barriers facing closer integration and possibilities for overcoming it.
• Intend to design, establish and publish calls for proposal which mix two kinds: “coordinated calls” and “common calls”.
• Contribute to promote the European Biodiversity Research at international level in collecting and organising information about biodiversity programs funded by EU in developing countries, and developing searchable database on it.

To reach these objectives in four years, various Tasks will be executed by members within five Work Packages (WPs):

• WP1: Information retrieval and dissemination on biodiversity research programmes.
• WP2: Identification of the best practices and barriers to implementation.
• WP3: Developing and implementing a strategy towards an ERA in Biodiversity Research.
• WP4: Information gathering and linkage of ERA-Net members programmes with developing countries.
• WP5: Management activities.

Each Task is lead by one of the BiodivERsA members (Task Leader) who is responsible for the proper and timely execution of the planned activities to reach the Task objective(s). Within a WP, the different Tasks are coordinated by a WP Leader who takes responsibility for monitoring progress and reaching the overall WP objective(s) and ensuring synergy between the Tasks.

The duration of the ERA-NET BiodivERsA is 48 months.

Major milestones