Researchers from Białowieża, Łódź, Kraków, Sopot and Warsaw are among the recent winners of the BiodivMon call organised by the European Biodiversity
Partnership Biodiversa+. They will work on projects focused on improving the system of monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem change.
Announced in September 2022, BiodivMon – Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society, covered the following themes:
- Innovation and harmonization of methods and tools for collection and management of biodiversity monitoring data;
- Addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status, dynamics, and trends to reverse biodiversity loss;
- Making use of available biodiversity monitoring data.
Researchers from 33 different countries could join the BiodivMon call, organised by 46 research-funding organizations, to compete for grants covering three-year international research projects. In the end, 262 pre-proposals and 108 full proposals were submitted, out of which an independent panel of experts selected 33 with a total budget of 46 million euro.
Polish teams are involved in six of these successful projects. Their total budget is 6.8 million zlotys, nearly 1.7 million of which will come from an EU subsidy.
The following is the list of winning Polish projects:
- WOBEC: Weddell Sea Observatory of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change. Principal investigator: Dr hab. Józef Wiktor, Instytut Oceanologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
- DNAquaIMG: Innovating transnational aquatic biodiversity monitoring using high-throughput DNA tools and automated image recognition. Polish principal investigator: Dr hab. Karolina Bącela-Spychalska, Uniwersytet Łódzki.
- FunDive: Monitoring and mapping fungal diversity for nature conservation. Polish principal investigator: dr hab. Julia Pawłowska, Uniwersytet Warszawski.
- WildINTEL: Building a scalable WILDlife monitoring system by integrating remote camera sampling and artificial INTELligence with Essential Biodiversity Variables Polish principal investigator/PI of the WildINTEL project: Dr hab. Nuria Selva Fernandez, Instytut Ochrony Przyrody Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
- SoilRise: Raising awareness for soil biodiversity and multiplying monitoring by student-based Citizen Science. Polish principal investigator: Dr hab. inż. Agnieszka Józefowska, Uniwersytet Rolniczy im. Hugona Kołłątaja w Krakowie.
- BIG_PICTURE: Developing data management and analytical tools to integrate and advance professional and citizen science camera-trapping initiatives across Europe. Polish principal investigator: Dr Jakub Bubicki, Instytut Biologii Ssaków Polskiej Akademii Nauk.