Living Labs For The Eradication And/or Management Of Invasive Alien Species

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• the capacities and integrated governance of researchers, decision-makers, practitioners, local communities and other stakeholders to effectively collaborate to prevent, eradicate or manage invasive alien species (IAS) are enhanced;
• native ecosystems are better protected, leading to improved resilience and continuous provision of ecosystem services including for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Invasive alien species are one of the five main direct drivers of biodiversity loss. Besides inflicting major damage to nature and the economy, many invasive alien species also facilitate the outbreak and spread of infectious diseases, posing a threat to humans and native wildlife. The rate of new introductions of invasive alien species has increased in recent years. Without effective control measures, risks to our nature and health will continue to rise. Climate change and land-use changes facilitate the spread and establishment of many alien species.

Proposals are expected to support the prevention, eradication and/or management of invasive alien species by stakeholders, including adaptive management approaches. This topic is related to target 12 the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 (50% reduction in the number of Red List species threatened by invasive alien species) and to target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: reduce the introduction of Invasive Alien Species by 50% by 2030 and minimize their impact. Proposals should support the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU regulation on invasive alien species and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Proposals should seek to address some knowledge gaps identified by the IPBES assessment on invasive alien species (2023)^[1]. All ecosystem types (terrestrial, fresh and/or marine waters) may be addressed.

Living labs can empower the green transition by co-creating solutions and involving actors in real life settings at territorial level to achieve large-scale impact.

Successful proposals should:

• set up at least three living labs, composed each of 10 to 20 experimental sites, following the three main principles: (a) co-creation with a large set of stakeholders, (b) carried out in real-life settings and (c) involving the end-users. Transboundary living labs are encouraged and living labs are expected to be located in at least three different EU Member States and/or Associated Countries;
• establish a detailed work plan of the activities to be undertaken in a transdisciplinary way, ensuring the co-design, co-development, and co-implementation of locally adapted innovative solutions. Where appropriate, activities should advance knowledge on invasive alien species to support the development of solutions;
• conduct participatory and transdisciplinary research and innovation in living labs with the objectives of:
  • building on existing methods (including ensuring the integration of existing solutions) or developing new ones for detecting and monitoring invasive alien species, such as the use of citizen science, eDNA, remote sensing and machine learning algorithms, and test them at scale. Proposals could build on pilots developed by the European partnership Biodiversa+;
  • designing and testing innovative eradication and management strategies and methods which may include, for instance, physical removal and the use of biological control or chemical control. Innovative tools such as bio-engineering might be explored in conjunction with more traditional methods. Range shifts induced by climate change should be considered;
• monitor and carry out an assessment of the innovative strategies, methods and tools and their effectiveness. Measures to ensure the prevention of re-invasion should be considered as well, to secure the continued effectiveness of the proposed solutions;
• disseminate the newly developed solutions, to facilitate their uptake by practitioners;
• provide data and experience usable for decision-makers, to assess socio-economic impacts of invasive alien species, side-effects of the management, the cost of inaction and the benefits of eradication or effective management, with effective contribution from social sciences and humanities;
• address challenges with scaling up and transferability of solutions. A gender-sensitive and inclusive approach should be integrated, examining how invasive alien species affect individuals’ livelihoods and well-being differently.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH discipline to enhance the societal impact of the research activities.

Concrete efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of the funded projects is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable), particularly for real-time data feeds, exploring workflows that can provide “FAIR-by-design” data, i.e., data that is FAIR from its generation. Possibilities offered by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to store and give access to research data should be considered. A citizen science approach could be appropriate for this action to produce, collect and analyse data.

Financial support to third parties (FSTP) to facilitate active involvement of small actors (e.g. land managers, SMEs or civil society) in one or more of the living labs of a project, can be provided through calls. A maximum of 30% of the EU funding should be allocated to this purpose.

Proposals should cooperate with the Joint Research Centre to use the resources of and make results available to, when relevant, the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN).

Proposals should ensure cooperation with relevant initiatives of the European partnership Biodiversa+ and foresee appropriate resources to ensure close cooperation with the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) and its Science Service.

Proposals are encouraged to consider, where relevant, the data, expertise and services offered by European research infrastructures^[2] as well as related projects in the environment domain. International cooperation is encouraged.

[1] IPBES (2023). Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7430692; Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7430682

[2] The catalogue of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) research infrastructures portfolio can be browsed from ESFRI website https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/