The Horizon Europe-funded project BioClima “Improving Monitoring for Better Integrated Climate and Biodiversity Approaches, Using Environmental and Earth Observations,” was kicked off this week, setting an unprecedented EU-China collaboration; the project brings together 17 European partners and 20 Chinese partners, who will work in parallel on a sister project in China.
Led by ITC researchers, Work Package 2 of this biodiversity conservation project aims to advance biodiversity and climate monitoring in vulnerable ecosystems. To achieve this, ITC researchers will focus on bridging the gap between essential climate variables (ECVs) and essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) by utilizing Earth observation and in situ data. This approach could play a pivotal role in enhancing our understanding of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Integrating ECVs and EBVs
The scientific goal of BioClima is to enable the concurrent utilization of EBVs and ECVs, for assessing biodiversity status and the impact of climate change.
"These sets of variables are mostly studied independently, with separate groups focusing on climate change and biodiversity," Dr. Elnaz Neinavaz, Assistant Professor from the Natural Resources Department (NRS) of ITC, explained.
Credits: Jordan (Unsplash)
Leveraging both sets of variables simultaneously could be crucial in assessing ecosystem functioning and health. This process is set to be a crucial step toward developing international strategies to tackle climate change and biodiversity challenges in Europe and China.
Fostering international collaboration
Dr. Yue Dou, Assistant Professor (NRS), was networking after a conference in China when the idea of the project emerged; "I was invited to present at a conference in China last October. During a dinner with a friend from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we started discussing a biodiversity project he was involved in with European partners. That conversation led to the idea to apply for this call" she recalled.
Chinese Academy of Sciences (Source: LinkedIn)
BioClima represents a significant step forward in EU-China international collaboration. According to Dr. Yue Dou, "This project is not just about cutting-edge science," she explained, "It's also about building bridges between different cultures and research approaches. Through this project, we hope to strengthen the collaboration between Chinese and European scientific communities".
Funding process
The process of preparing the BioClima proposal was quite unique; the proposals from both EU and Chinese consortiums had to be approved independently by two different committees.
For this reason, the proposal writing had some challenges. Dr. Elnaz Neinavaz recalled, "It was quite a journey. We started preparing five months before the deadline and had several meetings per week in the very early mornings due to the time differences with China". Despite the initial difficulties in coordinating the proposals and the Chinese partners being much further along in their progress, the joint proposals were successful and approved by the European Commission and the Chinese counterpart.
More information
From Faculty ITC, NRS researchers Yue Dou, Elnaz Neinavaz, Roshanak Darvishzadeh, and Panagiotis Nyktas will be contributing to this project. During the upcoming months, ITC will lead a case study for the implementation of the project activities in climate change-sensitive National Park in Crete, cooperating closely with WPs that utilize drones.
National Park in Crete
Additionally, one PhD researcher, fully funded by BioClima, will spend 48 months investigating the impact of climate change-induced extreme events on biodiversity using EBVs and ECVs.
