In line with the Commission priority 'A stronger Europe in the world', to implement the EU Green Deal and demonstrated leadership as stipulated in the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, a successful proposal will step up EU support to processes triggered by IPBES and IPCC^[1] to achieve targeted impacts on biodiversity-relevant policies, and to integrate structured policy input into the research cycle. Projects should produce all following outcomes:

• EU projects and initiatives are aware of and use the knowledge generation, policy support and capacity building functions of IPBES, including the recommendations issued by its task forces (for IPBES and IPCC).
• better take up IPBES and IPCC findings and conclusions.
• Resolving shortcomings in the uptake of IPBES assessments in sectorial policy making other than for biodiversity, and business decisions at European, national and local level, when translating its outcomes into options for better protecting and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Science-policy interfaces on biodiversity and nature-based solutions have made good progress in the last years, but must be stepped up to achieve the targeted impacts on biodiversity-relevant policies, and to get structured policy input into the research cycle. They are also key in guiding biodiversity governance, and in implementing the EU Green Deal and international conventions. In line with the Commission’s priority 'A stronger Europe in the world', the European Union must take and demonstrate leadership in this field, notably by increasing its support to IPBES -to elevate it to the same level as the IPCC-, and for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Besides economic support, this also includes efforts to create synergies and cooperation between IPBES, regional Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and other relevant research communities to ensure a full coverage of all relevant aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem services in order to underpin the full scope of the post 2020 global biodiversity framework.

This action delivers targeted support to areas of specific interest for European research policy by using IPBES outputs. It also helps European researchers play their role in IPBES assessments, in particular those from southern, central and eastern European countries, and those from the Western Balkans, Central Asia, and from Africa^[2], who remain underrepresented, due to a lack of capacity to participate in meetings, networking or science input at global level. Three major functions of IPBES still need to be further developed to achieve a proper level of uptake in Europe: knowledge generation, policy support and capacity building functions, including the task forces.

The project should cover the following points:

1. providing assistance to the EU and associated countries, and to central Asian and to African researchers, knowledge holders and local communities for input into IPBES and IPCC;
2. networking between scientific disciplines relevant to IPBES and IPCC (e.g. between SSH, STEM);
3. translating IPBES output into EU languages, targeted to a wider readership by the EU public, interest groups, research and innovation projects, policy makers and businesses in cooperation with ‘HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-19: A mechanism for science to inform implementation, monitoring, review and ratcheting up the new EU biodiversity strategy (‘Science Service’)’;
4. facilitating synergies through cooperation between IPBES and IPCC researchers and relevant regional Multilateral Environment Agreements, such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Air Convention;
5. proposing standards for EU-funded biodiversity projects in applying the relevant work of the IPBES data and knowledge task force;
6. supporting European negotiators at IPBES plenary meetings and inter-sessional work (such as for the review of assessments, the work of task forces and preparation for plenary groups);
7. improving the level of coherence in how the EU and associated countries give input into both, CBD (e.g. SBSTTA/SBI) and IPBES processes in cooperation with ‘HORIZON-CL6-2022-BIODIV-01-10: Cooperation with the Convention on Biological Diversity’.

The project should detail a plan on how the work can be further financed and governed over the medium- and long-term and secure commitments that enable the work to continue after the funding of this topic ends.

Proposals must not develop any new platforms but ensure that all relevant evidence, data and information is accessible through e.g. the Oppla portal and cooperate with existing networks of national platforms^[3]. They must also prepare the inclusion of its results to the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity according to an agreed format.

The project is to set a clear plan on how it will plan to collaborate with other projects selected under this and any other related topics, such as ‘HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-16: Biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport, climate and health nexus in the context of transformative change’ and ‘HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-21: Impact and dependence of business on biodiversity’, and with the Biodiversity Partnership (HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-02-01). This includes links to ESFRI research infrastructures, to test whether they could host predictive models, visualization and analysis of their platform's, early warning systems, to respond to IPBES assessments and CBD requests), by participating in joint activities such as workshops or joint communication and dissemination measures. Proposals should include dedicated tasks and allocate sufficient resources for coordination measures.

This topic should involve the contribution from the social sciences and humanities disciplines.

[1] Considering Horizon Europe Cluster 5 – Destination 1 “Climate Science and Responses”

[2] Europe and Central Asia form one region for IPBES purposes; cooperation with Africa is a priority for the policy agenda of the European Union

[3] Such as e.g. the ECA network, the Sub-global Assessment Network, BES-Net or EKLIPSE