Interview | Unveiling BIONEXT: An EU project grant of €4.1 Million for biodiversity

BIONEXT is a research and innovation project that joins the fight for nature and biodiversity. The project produces new evidence to understand biodiversity loss better and demonstrates how biodiversity underpins every aspect of life; the water we drink, the food we eat, and our health. To secure and protect these values, the project demands transformative change: BIONEXT’s goal is a sustainable society, where links between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport, climate, and health are acknowledged and nature and biodiversity are a part of everyday choices and policymaking.

The Horizon Europe Framework Programme, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, allocated 4,1 million euros to a single project, the BIONEXT project. We in the project asked our project officer Colombe Warin, who works at the European Research Executive Agency, why the project was funded to shed light on the importance of the project.

Why is a project like BIONEXT needed?

Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate and if not stopped, it will have catastrophic impacts on the health of our planet and thus a direct impact on all our lives. For example, natural ecosystems perform vital functions, including pollination and maintaining soil fertility, which are critical to global food security and nutrition. Biodiversity also contributes to the regulation of air quality, provides nutritious foods, and supports physical and mental well-being. Moreover, ecosystems-based processes regulate the accessibility of clean drinking water and the water supply for agriculture and industry. So, the biodiversity crisis is something we all should be worried about.

Looking the crisis through financial matters just reinforces the need to act. For example, the collapse of select ecosystem services provided by nature (such as wild pollination, provision of food from marine fisheries and timber from native forests) could result in a decline in global DGP of 2,7 trillion dollars annually by 2030. So, investing 4,1 million euros for a project to fight the biodiversity crisis will pay itself back multiple times. This is something that the EU has also understood.

“The Horizon Europe Framework Programme allocated, in line with the EU biodiversity strategy, 4,1 million euros to a single project. The EU wanted a project that develops knowledge and tools to understand the role of transformative change for biodiversity policy making, addresses the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, and initiates, accelerates and upscales biodiversity-relevant transformative changes in our society”, tells Warin.

What made BIONEXT stand out from other proposals?

“Considering the urgency of the biodiversity crisis and decline, the aim was to fund a project which will think out of the box, gather key stakeholders and further mainstream biodiversity into policy making, governance and financing for achieving transformative action. BIONEXT showed in its proposal to be able to do this”, says Warin.

“What made BIONEXT especially special, was its way to address the interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport and health in the context of climate change”, explains Warin.

How is BIONEXT contributing to the fight against the biodiversity crisis?

“BIONEXT is playing a crucial role in tackling the biodiversity crisis. They’re taking a fresh approach, providing various tools and knowledge to influence policies for transformative change in the field of biodiversity. What’s unique is that they’re doing this in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary way, ensuring that they consider the specific aspects of the nexus approach. They also address the interlinkages and trade-offs between different sectors”, explains Warin.

“BIONEXT is also diving deep into existing case studies to make a significant impact on transformative change”, tells Warin and continues, “They’ve created a database of these cases, allowing policymakers and decision-makers to explore the concept of “just transformative change”.”

“In the proposal, very well welcomed were the nature-positive visions for Europe and multiple just transition pathways proposed to be developed in the project. These will be created in co-creation in workshops and focus groups taking place in various cities around Europe”, says Warin.

“What’s even more exciting is how the evidence from BIONEXT is aligned to support for the upcoming IPBES assessments, set to be delivered in 2024. These assessments will focus on transformational change and the nexus of biodiversity, climate, water, food and health”, tells Warin.

“Also the tools nexus modelling framework and Pathways App will be important outputs from the project. The nexus modelling framework will integrate scenarios and pathways in a collaborative process with stakeholders, and the BIONEXT Pathways App will be a novel decision support tool that helps users explore the building blocks needed for shaping policies and implementing changes for the biodiversity nexus. So, BIONEXT promises to make big strides in transforming how we address the biodiversity crisis”, summarizes Warin.