The Project stemming from this topic should deliver the following outcomes, considering rail as the backbone of the future mobility system:

• Reach applicable recommendations for the development and improvement of cross-cutting biodiversity and climate policies. This will serve as a baseline for the transport and energy sector, to be used in a holistic way when planning future endeavours so the design, construction, and maintenance phases of the any relevant projects shall take into account biodiversity and net zero emissions all throughout the lifecycle including the land use management in railways.
• Develop technical methodologies to evaluate the environmental efficiency of rail transport infrastructure and its impact on ecosystem services and climate challenge. The methodology should address how to score / the expected scoring performance on innovative green infrastructure solutions. This should lead to an identification of metrics/KPI and targets for them that will help monitor the progress.
• Inclusive assessment framework of the impacts from infrastructure on biodiversity enabling compiling heterogeneous data.
• Filling gaps in the accounting of joint carbon and biodiversity "transboundary" impacts between energy and transport sectors and identify ways to address them.
• Providing a user-friendly, open data-driven carbon emission calculator for use in railway infrastructure projects.

Railways are the key transport mode to design a better future and to achieve a sustainable mobility. The project to be funded under this call aims to facilitate the implementation of the EU biodiversity policy and guidelines with a coordinated approach among stakeholders, in particular looking at the rail sector and how the application of a more homogenous biodiversity baseline can be defined across the transport and energy sector. This coordination and support action aims also at supporting the PRIME^[1] initiative by achieving a harmonised / common acknowledged environmental scorecard for rail infrastructure manager and identifying opportunities for improvement in ecosystem services resulting from the management of habitats, vegetation, water and soil quality, while leading the elaboration of national transport management plans to be used in new construction projects. The following R&I work-streams have been identified for addressing all the above expected outcomes:

Workstream 1: Bridging the transport infrastructure & energy distribution and production networks together with biodiversity to tackle climate change

The development of a biodiversity-friendly approach for different types of transport infrastructure has been included in the actions of national and international authorities in various forms for several years. The aim of this workstream is to bridge energy at its latest technology state of the art / innovation and rail transport identifying best possible matches that deliver rail solutions to tackle climate change.

The technical objectives of the funded project include addressing the approach and promoting synergies between transport and energy sectors, the development of an inclusive assessment framework of the impacts from infrastructure on biodiversity enabling procurement improvements through harmonised, transparent, and robust data generation. The project shall aim to support stakeholders in decision-making by analysing the existing situation.

The economic aspects of the project include leveraging the use of the multilateral platform(s) for the preparation of sustainable infrastructure projects and enabling the achievement of green bonds, with criteria and scoring to be established, and contributing to its support and dissemination as capacity building in developing countries, in particular in connection with the EU Global Gateway. Furthermore, the funded project is to identify tools to help sector actors integrate biodiversity more thoroughly into their strategic and operational plans.

Proposals should take into account the societal perspective. The objective is to promote the development of a holistic approach to environmental mainstreaming of infrastructure by producing comparable results to demonstrate the benefits and impacts of infrastructure projects on public health and well-being, and better integration in the policy-making processes. The information obtained will also support capacity building through the development of an initial and continuing training programme. It will also aim at supporting the emergence of a European knowledge hub on infrastructure and biodiversity.

Workstream 2: Valuing the nature on railways

A well-managed green infrastructure will bring biodiversity benefits, but also helps support safer and more reliable railways operations. With the increasing importance given to railways to ensure net zero emissions reality, it is expected that the amount of land designated to railways, including infrastructure and real estate, will increase in Europe. This land take may be challenged in terms of environmental impact and loss of habitats.

Railways must be able to clearly demonstrate the value from railway green infrastructure and that there is no loss of value from investing in new infrastructure when it is designed well. Through innovative digital remote monitoring and biodiversity consideration in early design of infrastructure, the way the lineside is understood is changing. The project to be funded through this call will set a direction of travel for biodiversity net gain as well as no net loss. A standardised approach to ensure the sustainability of railways and to guide different stakeholders towards effective and efficient land management practices will strengthen the development of a common European biodiversity metric to benchmark data on railways and other cross-cutting transport modes.

The framework set under the project aims to harmonise the European railway community in identifying opportunities for improvement in ecosystem services resulting from the management of habitats, vegetation, water and soil quality, while leading the elaboration of national transport management plans to be used in new construction projects.

The project stemming from this topic focusses on providing a ranking system to generate new sources of funding, as well as the development of a long-term monitoring and reporting system with a carbon emission calculator developed for use in new construction projects based on the metrics identified in the habitat management context., as well as to guide the sector with a tool for the collection of harmonised transparent and robust data for use on European railways and to improve procurement processes.

Additionally, a standardised approach to ensure the sustainability of railways and to guide different stakeholders towards effective and efficient land management practices will strengthen the development of a common European biodiversity metric to benchmark data on railways.

Interactions with other EU-RAIL projects and EU-Missions

The action to be funded under this topic shall:

• Take into account the outputs of linked projects from EU-RAIL Flagship Areas 3^[2] and 4^[3] and work together for any potential interfaces.
• Take into account the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030^[4].
• Take into account the outcome of the H2020-BISON CSA^[5], which paved the way to an innovative multimodal approach to tackle biodiversity and infrastructure.

Gender dimension

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

[1] https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/display/primeinfrastructure/About+PRIME

[2] https://projects.rail-research.europa.eu/eurail-fp3/

[3] https://projects.rail-research.europa.eu/eurail-fp4/

[4] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_en

[5] https://bison-transport.eu/