Partnering scientific projects

Horizon Europe backs inclusive environmental decision-making: Pensoft joins BALANSED

Within the project, Pensoft is to bridge the gap between complex science and accessible digital experiences, playing a central technical and communications role.

Pensoft will lead the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities of the EU Horizon project BALANSED (Biomass Assessment of Land and Sea for Engagement and Deliberation), while also developing innovative digital tools that support informed public participation in environmental decision-making.

As Europe’s Green Deal goal is fast approaching, policy-makers are increasingly faced with tough choices regarding the use of natural resources. The project was inspired by the need for conflict resolution as main objectives, such as the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure, the protection of biodiversity and the securing of food production have started to compete with one another. Scientific models are good at predicting the environmental impact of various actions, but not so good at factoring in the views, interests and priorities of people who will be directly affected by those decisions.

That is where BALANSED comes in.

The Project:

This 54-month project, between 1 June 2026 and 30 November 2030, funded under Horizon Europe, aims to change the way environmental planning and natural resource management is carried out across Europe. Advanced scientific modelling joins forces with community driven deliberation to ensure that climate and environmental policies are not only scientifically sound, but also socially fair, transparent and broadly supported.

BALANSED is an EU project helping citizens, policymakers, and scientists make better decisions about the environment – balancing land and sea use, biodiversity, and local economies.

It will turn complex environmental data into simple, understandable indicators, so communities can clearly see how different choices affect them. The tools will be tested in six local study regions and two cross-regional ones, tackling issues like water shortages, farming, forestry, and ocean management.

The project will also launch an Online European Public Deliberation Platform and Deliberation Toolkit to support informed public debate on environmental planning across all European regions.

Between 8 and 9 June 2026 representatives from all 13 partner organisations met in Wageningen, Netherlands, to kick off the project.

Central discussions focused on how environmental decisions can better balance ecological and societal needs. A key theme was the importance of involving citizens, researchers, and policymakers together from day one.

Pensoft’s role:

Pensoft bridges the gap between complex science and accessible digital experiences, playing a central technical and communications role in BALANSED across three key areas:

Digital tools – as lead of Work Package 6, Pensoft will turn scientific data and models into intuitive digital interfaces, including online deliberation software and tailored digital environments for each of the study regions
EU-wide platform – Pensoft will build the final Online European Public Deliberation Platform, integrated directly with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to support decision-making across all European regions
Communications & impact – drawing on its expertise in science communication, Pensoft leads Work Packages 8 and 9, ensuring the project’s findings are widely shared and put to use across Europe

Project partners:

Stichting Wageningen Research (WR) – https://www.linkedin.com/company/wageningenenvironmentalresearch/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/wurenvironmental.bsky.social

Wageningen University – https://www.linkedin.com/school/wageningenuniversity/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/w-u-r.bsky.social

Internationales Institut Fuer Angewandte Systemanalyse – https://www.linkedin.com/company/iiasa-vienna/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/iiasa.ac.at

Gfz Helmholtz-Zentrum Für Geoforschung – https://www.linkedin.com/company/gfz-helmholtz-zentrum-fuer-geoforschung/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/gfz.bsky.social

Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale Ogs – https://www.linkedin.com/company/istituto-nazionale-di-oceanografia-e-geofisica-sperimentale/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/ogsit.bsky.social

Pensoft Publishers – https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pensoft-project-services/about/ ; https://bsky.app/profile/pensoft.net

Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias – https://www.linkedin.com/company/coopsagroes/posts/?feedView=all ;

Unión Regional de Cooperativas Agrarias de Castilla y León (URCACYL)

Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Castilla-La Mancha (CALCM)

Society for Territorial and Environmental Prosperity

Gozdarski inštitut Slovenije – https://www.linkedin.com/company/gozdarski-in%C5%A1titut-slovenije-slovenian-forestry-institute-sfi/

Zavod za gozdove Slovenije – https://www.linkedin.com/company/zavod-za-gozdove-slovenije/

Mittetulundusühing Ökoloogiliste Tehnoloogiate Keskus (CEET)

Coordinators: Berien Elbersen & Tomaso Ceccarelli from Wageningen Environmental Research

BALANSED website coming soon!

Follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky to stay updated

Using DNA to save Nature: Europe’s Next Biodiversity Frontier

A landmark alliance of DNA experts across Europe signals the start of an unprecedented effort to build a continent-wide system that applies genomics for protecting European biodiversity.

That Europe’s biodiversity faces unprecedented challenges is nothing new: species are vanishing, ecosystems are degrading, and the policy-makers crafting the policies to address these challenges depend on data that is, at times, scarce.

What is probably less known is that biodiversity genomics – the one that focuses not on humans, but on other living organisms, like animals and plants – is living a revolution that may well provide just the right knowledge that policy-makers need. Never before has DNA-based science been able to identify species, monitor ecosystems, and understand genetic diversity as cheaply, efficiently, and at scale as it can now.

A landmark commitment

A scientist Institute holding a Covaris g-TUBE, a specialized laboratory consumable used for DNA shearing. — A scientist holding a Covaris g-TUBE. Photo credit to David Lavene /Wellcome Sanger Institute

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA), the International Barcode of Life Europe (iBOL Europe), and the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) have signed a historic agreement for biodiversity genomics in Europe. These three large scientific communities have committed to building a coordinated European infrastructure for biodiversity genomics: one that will allow experts to work in a connected system of shared resources, technology, and data.

The vision has taken shape through the Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+) project, and aligns with the environmental goals of the European Commission, which has welcomed steps in this direction. In fact, Costas Kadis, EU Commissioner for fisheries and oceans, recently weighed in on the need for common protocols and comparable data, and pointed to the possibility of achieving this goal through an improved and dedicated biodiversity genomics infrastructure for Europe.

We are entering a new phase. Europe already has extraordinary expertise in taxonomy, genomics, bioinformatics, biodiversity collections, and environmental monitoring. The challenge now is bringing these strengths together in a way that allows us to work at scale in an interconnected system, beyond geographic and political limitations.
says Dimitris Koureas, director of BGE+

A researcher in a white lab coat using a micropipette to transfer a sample into a DNA analysis machine. Photo credit to at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The initiative emphasises one of the biggest challenges for efficient biodiversity research today: scale. Although more than two million species have been formally described worldwide, scientists estimate that millions more remain unknown, and we all know what this means: we cannot protect what we do not know. But understanding and monitoring biodiversity at the speed required by today’s environmental challenges demands new approaches that boost scientific collaboration and interoperability. Initiatives like BGE+ show the way ahead.

In the words of Gabriela Dankova, BGE+ project manager:

Tackling current biodiversity challenges requires effective collaboration of our communities across Europe, open knowledge exchange, solid technical infrastructure, harmonised processes, and, above all, a shared vision. BGE+ brings these elements together, enabling and amplifying the work of biodiversity genomics communities in Europe and beyond.

Scientist conducting genomic research. Photo credit to Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

Scientists know that discovering and documenting all species is only part of the work. They also need to understand how species adapt to environmental change. That is the reason why BGE+ brings together two different strands of genomics. DNA barcoding allows scientists to identify species quickly and accurately. Genome sequencing provides deeper insights into adaptation, evolution, and resilience. Combined with taxonomic expertise and advanced data systems, these tools are creating entirely new possibilities for understanding and protecting nature.

BGE+’s long-term ambition is to establish the services, standards, capacity, and infrastructure needed for biodiversity genomics to become a routine part of how Europe studies, monitors, manages, and restores nature. The stakes could not be higher.

Pensoft’s role in Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+)

Within BGE+, Pensoft plays a leading role in knowledge sharing, skills development, and open publishing in biodiversity genomics. Working with research communities across Europe, the company will identify training needs, develop practical learning resources, and support capacity building for BGE+ cascade projects. At the same time, Pensoft will develop publishing workflows that make biodiversity genomics research easier to publish, discover, and reuse, integrating scientific articles with datasets and metadata via the ARPHA Writing Tool to support FAIR principles and ensure research outputs are more transparent, searchable, and interoperable.

Beyond training and publishing, Pensoft will help translate genomic research into policy-relevant evidence by supporting harmonised standards, open data practices, and clearer communication between researchers and decision-makers. The company will also support iBOL Europe’s community engagement and capacity building through training activities, strengthening collaboration between national and European networks, developing distributed DNA barcoding facilities, and promoting the growth of a comprehensive European DNA barcode reference library.

EU reforms in chemical risk assessments to protect wild pollinators proposed by a Horizon Europe project

This is the first policy brief by the Horizon Europe project PollinERA, whose aim is to improve pesticide risk assessments, in order to protect wild pollinators across the Europe Union.

The 11-member PollinERA project consortium, brought together to reverse pollinator population declines and reduce the harmful impacts of pesticides, has released its first policy brief.

This marks an important stepping stone for the project, bringing PollinERA’s scientific insights directly into the policy space in a format designed to support decision-making.

Titled “Reforming EU chemical risk assessment: from regulatory bottlenecks to systems solution”, the brief was developed to address one of the core challenges identified in the project: the need to improve the way environmental risks to pollinators are currently assessed.

Moving towards a systems-based Environmental Risk Assessment for wild bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies: Pensoft joins PollinERA

It has been acknowledged that the current approach works in isolation, overlooks cumulative impacts and bases decisions solely on binary “safe/unsafe” categories.

What the PollinERA-derived policy brief suggests is a systems-first, tools-second approach that can deliver faster, cheaper and effective decision-making by prioritising simulation and systems understanding before developing regulatory tools for Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA).

The brief is authored by project coordinator Christopher John Topping, Noa Simon Delso, James Henty Williams and Johan Axelman. Together, the team used their expertise in pollinator research and environmental policy to present PollinERA findings in an accessible, practical and relevant way, dedicated for those who shape policy at European and national levels.

To ensure transparency and provide a strong scientific foundation, the policy brief is supported by a technical evidence report, also made openly available.

The policy brief, technical supportive documents, as well as key scientific resources and publications are conveniently and publicly accessible in the PollinERA’s project collection, hosted in the open-science scholarly journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO). Being ‘a living’ space, the collection will be further enriched as new valuable outputs are generated over the course of the project.

Additionally, research articles associated with the project are being added to the PollinERA collection in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Food and Ecological Systems Modelling Journal (FESMJ), titled “PollinERA – Understanding pesticide-Pollinator interactions to support EU Environmental Risk Assessment and policy“.

The policy brief marks the beginning of the PollinERA Policy series: a collection of policy briefs that will be released throughout the project.

Each brief will focus on a different aspect of pollinator protection or pesticide risk assessment, helping to build a coherent and comprehensive set of policy-facing outputs.

Make sure to visit the PollinERA website, where you can also subscribe for the project’s newsletter. You can also follow PollinERA on BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram and Linkedin.

Don’t forget to also follow the journals FESMJ (BlueSky and Facebook) and RIO (BlueSky, Facebook and Linkedin) on social media!

New Horizon Europe project supports land-coast-sea systems under climate change

“COAST-SCAPES is a collective effort to rethink how we coexist with coastal systems”, explains project coordinator Prof. Manel Grifoll.

COAST-SCAPES: a newly launched project, funded by the European Commission, is to propose a reconsideration of the current coastal ecosystem to enhance resilience and biodiversity protection through nature-based solutions.

Leading maritime engineering specialists, marine ecologists, and biodiversity experts, gathered in Barcelona (Spain) between 7 and 9 October to officially kick start the project’s vision on climate-resilient coastal landscapes. Hosted by the Maritime Engineering Laboratory from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the meeting focused on setting the strategic direction of the project, aligning the scientific, technical and communication objectives and establishing synergies between project partners across Europe and beyond.

In the span of two days, consortium partners were given the opportunity to present their missions with the COAST-SCAPES project, showcasing how each partner institution will contribute to building science-based and community-driven resilience pathways.

The project coordinator, Prof. Manel Grifoll, navigated the discussions, which centered around key deliverables and milestones, future challenges and plans on work-related activities, highlighting the crucial role of the project’s Core and Replicating Pilots for scalable resilience plans for replication and export.

*A group photo of the COAST-SCAPES consortium at the project’s kick-off (Barcelona, October 2025)*.

Officially started on 1 September 2025, the COAST-SCAPES project has major ambitions to co-design systemic resilience solutions for coastal landscapes by developing integrated indicators, proactive climate warning systems, as well as knowledge-based strategies for business and maintenance in order to reduce the risks of climate change and improve land-sea interactions. To achieve this, COAST-SCAPES will promote the utilisation of nature-based solutions (NbS), seeking biodiversity gains and reduction of the environmental footprint under scarce natural resources.

The project brings together a diverse group of partners, including research institutions, universities and technological organisations from Europe, Africa and Latin America. Their shared goal is to restore vulnerable coastal areas and apply resilience through adaptation. Due to human intervention, which drastically altered the evolution of coastal ecosystems, the ecological role of such areas is becoming crucial. By harnessing their low-carbon adaptation potential, coastal ecosystems can mitigate climate-related risks and boost biodiversity.

COAST-SCAPES is a collective effort to rethink how we coexist with coastal systems. By integrating natural processes, technology, and community knowledge, we aim to create adaptive landscapes that safeguard biodiversity and support sustainable livelihoods. Our ambition is to build resilient coasts that can thrive, not just survive, under climate change.
says Prof. Manel Grifoll, project coordinator.

The selected project’s Core Pilots, among which the Mar Menor lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula, will serve as a starting point for leading experts to carry out large-scale resilience plans, while protecting coastal biodiversity and addressing existing infrastructure challenges.

Supported by social and technical innovation, as well as a governance shift, these plans will connect scientists, citizens, policy-makers, environmental activists, and the industry with administrations responsible for local implementations for an increased cross-sectoral engagement. Contributing to a balanced land-to-sea ecosystem and a sustainable biodiversity protection, COAST-SCAPES reminds us that coastal restoration is vital for our adaptation to climate change.

Pensoft’s contribution to COAST-SCAPES:

Pensoft will lead two tasks within the COAST-SCAPES’ Work Package dedicated to dissemination and communication for practical exploitation. The objectives of these tasks are focused on the identification of key exploitable results of the project. Together with other consortium members, Pensoft will be working on establishing the most suitable exploitation pathways for each result. The experienced communication team at the scholarly publishing and technology providing company will also be actively raising societal and technical awareness necessary to transform governance for systemic resilience through yearly newsletters and policy briefs. In addition, Pensoft takes part in Work Package 6, where it will be responsible for the project’s visual identity and ensuring constant visibility of project results, as well as proper data management.

List of project consortium members:

Coordinated by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the project brings together 30 partner organisations from 15 countries to develop coastal resilience through nature-based solutions (NbS).

For more information:

Follow the COAST-SCAPES project on Bluesky and LinkedIn.

Project website coming soon!

Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101213138, COAST-SCAPES (rethinking COASTal landSCAPES with climate-resilient interventions: systemic land-to-sea solutions).

Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the EU, nor the REA can be held responsible for them.

Pensoft to co-host a session on knowledge transfer & continuity at Living Data 2025

Pensoft is a co-organiser of a four-hour session, titled: “Long Live Biodiversity Data: Knowledge Transfer and Continuity across Research Projects”.

In October 2025, four major institutions in the biodiversity research landscape: TDWG, GBIF, OBIS and GEO BON, will come together as the organisers of the Living Data 2025 conference.

The event is set to be among one of the most crucial international gatherings of the year for experts and stakeholders in the field of biodiversity data. Set to take place in the Colombian capital of Bogotá between 21^st and 24^th, Living Data 2025 will centre around four core themes:

Open data
Data integration
Biodiversity data application
Community engagement and capacity-building

As an academic publisher with experience and commitment to all these thematic areas, Pensoft will participate in the event in the capacity of an exhibitor and an award sponsor, as well as a symposium host.

The conference delegates will have the chance to learn more about the publisher, its exclusively open-access scholarly portfolio and participation at various international scientific projects when they visit the company’s branded stand.

During the event, the scientific publisher and technology provider will also present the Pensoft Award for the Best Student Oral Presentation, which grants the winner a free publication in an open-access, peer-reviewed journal from our portfolio.

Crucially, Pensoft’s involvement in the Living Data 2025 programme also includes a dedicated four-hour session titled “Long Live Biodiversity Data: Knowledge Transfer and Continuity across Research Projects”.

The symposium will be jointly co-organised by Pensoft, LifeWatch ERIC and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre. As the title suggests, the session will focus on the longevity of scientific outputs as they are generated, shared and re-used across disciplines, organisations and initiatives. In this context, tools, information hubs and workflows enabling exchanges that truly consolidate the global biodiversity data space over time will be showcased.

In a broader sense, the session will also seek to demonstrate how targeted communication can help transform science results into actionable knowledge by raising awareness among agenda-setters. This will speak to the potential of a multi-level approach to information sharing to bridge the gap between science and policy in relation to increasingly ambitious global environmental objectives.

Multiple projects affiliated with Pensoft will be represented in these deliberations, in order to share a diverse array of relevant insights:

The symposium will be divided into two sessions:

22 October (Wednesday): 10:45 AM – 12:45 PM (UTC/GMT-5)
23 October (Thursday): 10:45 AM to 12:45 PM (UTC/GMT-5)

You can find out more about Living Data, including the details on registering for an in-person or virtual attendance, on the conference’s website. Our session is listed on this page under ID number 6788879.

As an additional note, the organisers of the conference have launched a call for extended abstracts for all speakers at Living Data 2025 that will remain open until 1^st October 2025. The participants who opt to publish their conference abstracts in the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal will enjoy permanent and far-reaching accessibility and discoverability for their conference contributions.

The TDWG network, who launched BISS as their official scholarly outlet in 2017 in collaboration with long-time partner Pensoft, have posted a list of the advantages for submitting an extended abstract, even though they have already had their abstracts accepted by the Living Data 2025 organisers. Amongst the reaslons are many perks typically associated with a conventional research article, such as DOI registration, indexation at dozens of scientific databases, embedded media, tables and supplementary materials, and usage metrics.

Advancing eScience for biodiversity: Pensoft at the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference

The conference facilitated valuable networking opportunities, meeting us with old friends but also giving us a chance to discuss potential future collaborations.

Between 30 June and 3 July, Pensoft’s team attended the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference (BEeS) in Heraklion, Greece. The event was organized by the LifeWatch ERIC Infrastructure with the aim of tackling the Triple Planetary Crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution) through eScience and European Research Infrastructures (RIs). With almost 200 registered participants, the conference discussed “how cutting-edge eScience and European Research Infrastructures can work together to develop innovative solutions for a sustainable future.”

Hosted by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, BEeS convened 193 registrants, featured 59 presentations, 36 posters, and provided 12 training sessions, highlighting the vital role of technology, data, and collaborative efforts in confronting global environmental challenges.

Exterior view of the Greek Centre for Marine Research, featuring large windows and a shaded entrance under a blue sky.

A woman in a brown dress and a man in a maroon shirt approach a LifeWatch ERIC banner, entering a building in bright sunlight.

On the first day, a closed-door meeting was held with the aim of adopting a Declaration of Intent (the Crete Declaration) between the involved RIs, e-infrastructures, EU-relevant projects, and Pensoft, as a scientific publisher. The objective was to advance the One Health approach—a strategy that optimizes the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. The Declaration outlines four key strategic commitments:

strengthening strategic collaboration
advancing data integration and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles
supporting Open Science Ecosystems
informing policy and practice

Christos Arvanitidis, the president of LifeWatch ERIC, came to the Pensoft stand to meet with our staff and discuss our agenda.

Two men stand behind an exhibition table filled with brochures and materials for biodiversity science, showcasing several organizations and journals.

Pensoft was also invited to present the outcomes of the BiCIKL project, on which we partnered with LifeWatch ERIC, as part of the Mapping Life on Planet Earth: Biogeography in a Changing World session.

Advancing eScience for biodiversity: Pensoft at the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity

The conference facilitated valuable networking opportunities, meeting us with old friends but also giving us a chance to discuss potential…

Biodiversity Knowledge Hub makes an appearance at the European Geosciences

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub fosters interoperability between diverse resources to make it easier to use and combine information….

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and

Now concluded Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL shares lessons learned with policy-makers and research funders…

Pensoft took a BiCIKL ride to Naturalis to report on

Three years ago, the BiCIKL consortium took to traverse obstacles to wider use and adoption of FAIR and linked biodiversity…

BiCIKL project sums up outcomes and future prospects at a

On multiple occasions, the participants agreed that the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub must be the flagship outcome of BiCIKL. …

Towards the “Biodiversity PMC”: a literature database supporting advanced content

The indexing is one of the major outcomes from the partnerships within the Horizon 2020-funded project Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge…

Teodor Georgiev, Chief Technology Officer of Pensoft, delivered the presentation, titled The BiCIKL project traverses obstacles to FAIR and linked biodiversity data usage.

The BiCIKL project, which concluded on 30 April 2024, aims to catalyse the culture change in the way biodiversity data are identified, linked, integrated and re-used across the research lifecycle. Key outcomesinclude the creation of uni- and bi-directional links between biodiversity RIs, the establishment of best practices for Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), recommendations for interoperability between RIs, and the development of automated tools and workflows for published data liberation and FAIR-isation. The presentation also introduced the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub, a one-stop portal for understanding the complex, but increasingly interconnected landscape of biodiversity RIs.

Georgiev also delivered a poster presentation, discussing SOLO: a collaborative open-review and publishing platform supporting the EU Soil Mission.

SOLO, a Horizon Europe project in which Pensoft is involved, aims to identify current knowledge gaps, drivers, bottlenecks, and novel research and innovation approaches to be considered in the European Soil Mission research and innovation roadmap. Hosted on Pensoft’s ARPHA publishing platform and integrating the ARPHA Writing Tool, SOLO engages researchers, practitioners, citizens and other stakeholders in the development and review of ‘living’ open-access documents supporting the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe.” Pensoft’s contribution to SOLO encompasses communication, dissemination, data management, and the crucial development of the platform itself.

Pensoft joins EU-funded project SOLO, supporting the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”

Fifteen research infrastructures and 15 projects were officially represented at BEes, including two other Horizon Europe projects where Pensoft is a partner: ANERIS, which focuses on scientific tools and methods for marine life-sensing and monitoring, and BMD, which offers a single access point to high-throughput biodiversity monitoring tools.

Pensoft joins the Biodiversity Meets Data Horizon project to support

As part of the new consortium, Pensoft is to use innovative communication tools in support of evidence-based biodiversity conservation across Europe….

Novel tech for research & protection of marine biodiversity: Pensoft

Pensoft joins the ANERIS consortium as an expert in science communication with the goal to engage stakeholders and build an active community…

Berta Companys of the Spanish National Research Council introduced ANERIS with an insightful presentation on the project’s innovative technologies, workflow, and overall approach. Her talk highlighted the key challenges connected to marine biodiversity and monitoring sea and ocean ecosystems that ANERIS is tackling and outlined the solutions the project is developing to address them, such as the implementation of Operational Marine Biology (OMB) data products.

BMD was represented by coordinator Niels Raes of Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

An exhibition booth displays various informational materials related to biodiversity, flanked by two attendees.

The conference facilitated valuable networking opportunities, meeting us with old friends but also giving us a chance to discuss potential future collaborations. Pensoft engaged with partners from other European Research Infrastructures, sharing a dedication to collaborative research and the development of open-access resources addressing global environmental challenges.

FERRO project celebrates one year of advancing lake restoration across Europe

With a mission to address nutrient pollution and drive sustainable lake restoration across Europe, the FERRO project marks its first year.

Launched in June 2024, the Horizon Europe-funded project: Fostering European Lakes Restoration by Nutrient Removal, Recovery and Reuse: Integrated Catchment and In-lake Scale Approach (FERRO) – brings together scientists, engineers, and environmental experts from across Europe to develop innovative, nature-based, and circular solutions to reduce nutrient pollution in freshwater ecosystems.

Eutrophication, caused by excessive nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen that enter lakes and reservoirs, remains one of the most pervasive threats to freshwater bodies. These excess nutrients often originate from agricultural runoff and wastewater discharges, resulting in algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and biodiversity loss.

FERRO addresses these challenges by working at both catchment scale and in-lake level, aiming not only to remove harmful nutrients, but also to recover and reuse them – aligning with Europe’s goals for circular economy and sustainable water management.

With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, FERRO combines natural science, engineering, economics, and policy to develop scalable restoration strategies adaptable across Europe’s diverse lake regions.

The FERRO consortium

FERRO unites seven partners from six European countries, each contributing unique expertise to the project’s holistic approach:

Biology Centre CAS, Czech Republic
Brockmann Geomatics, Sweden
Brockmann Consult, Germany
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany
University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark
Pensoft Publishers, Bulgaria
University of Helsinki (UH), Finland

Together, these organisations form a powerhouse of knowledge, experience, and innovation in the fields of limnology, hydrology, environmental policy, circular resource use and communications.

Pensoft’s role in FERRO

As the leader of the Communication and Dissemination Work Package #2, Pensoft plays a key role in ensuring that FERRO’s results and insights reach the widest possible audience. The responsibilities include the development and maintenance of the project’s visual identity and digital presence, managing media relations, producing public outreach materials, and facilitating knowledge exchange between scientific, policy, and stakeholder communities. Pensoft also supports the strategic dissemination of scientific outputs and policy-relevant findings, ensuring alignment with the project’s broader impact goals.

FERRO marked its first anniversary with a successful General Assembly meeting held in Leipzig, Germany, between 20^th and 22^nd May. Over the three-day meeting, the project partners gathered to reflect on the progress achieved during the first year, align their visions for the project’s future, and collaboratively plan the next phases of implementation

As the project entered its second year, the Leipzig meeting served as a moment to evaluate initial findings, refine methodologies, and strengthen engagement with stakeholders at local, regional, and EU levels. The outcomes will guide the FERRO consortium in its continued efforts to advance lake restoration across Europe.

***

Stay tuned for more updates as the FERRO project continues to develop and implement its solutions for healthier lakes and more sustainable nutrient management across Europe!

You can keep tabs on the project’s official website: ferroproject.eu and also follow FERRO on LinkedIn, X and YouTube.

New Horizon Europe project will support the green transition by boosting skills and competences

The GREEN TALENT project aims to combat crises of climate change and biodiversity loss by enhancing professional development in the field

Officially started on 1 June 2025, the newly-funded Horizon Europe project GREEN TALENT is to run for 4 years with the overall objectives to unite 17 academic, public and private sector partner institutions from 9 European countries, and the United States.

The project’s goal is to develop the capacity of organisations and pathways to combat climate change and biodiversity loss, and support secondments across these countries, fostering international collaboration in research and innovation (R&I), as well as public and private decision-making.

Grounded in the EU’s comprehensive ERA Policy Agenda, the GREEN TALENT initiative has ambitious plans to enhance professional development in the field, providing Green talents with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience through group mentoring activities, job shadowing, and networking events.

During its implementation, the project has planned to establish four demonstration hubs in Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria, which will host 45 secondments, acting as collaborative spaces between representatives of academic and non-academic sectors.

“GREEN TALENT is about empowering a new generation of innovators, practitioners, and communities to respond to the urgent and interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

To succeed, we need innovation in its broadest sense – embracing not only new technologies, but also collaboration, knowledge exchange, behavioural change, and new financing mechanisms. By strengthening capacity and excellence across academia, business, and practice, we are building the partnerships and platforms needed to scale impactful solutions.

GREEN TALENT establishes four national hubs – in Malta, Cyprus, Greece, and Bulgaria – that will build on recent regional successes to foster cross-sector collaboration addressing climate change and biodiversity loss through nature-based solutions.

These hubs will foster collaboration among stakeholders at local and national levels, while engaging with European and international partners to enable mutual learning, inform best practices, and scale successful interventions beyond national contexts.

“GREEN TALENT strengthens Europe’s ability to lead the green transition by investing in people, fostering inclusive innovation, and delivering measurable progress toward climate resilience and biodiversity recovery,”
says the project coordinator, Mario Balzan, Ecostack Innovations.

Launched to support the green transition, GREEN TALENT will implement ongoing follow-up and assessment measures to ensure the long-term impact of its training activities. These efforts will enable participants to continuously refine their skills and effectively apply newly acquired competences within their home institutions.

All training materials will be openly accessible via a newly developed GREEN TALENT Capacity-Building Platform. In addition to comprehensive learning resources, the platform will showcase case studies, support peer learning, and host an Exchange Forum to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and cross-sector collaboration.

By equipping research and innovation talents with practical skills and fostering international cooperation, GREEN TALENT aims to drive meaningful progress toward climate resilience and biodiversity preservation.

Pensoft’s role at GREEN TALENT:

Pensoft will lead the project’s Work Package 7: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation. The primary objectives of the WP are the creation of a distinct brand identity, spreading knowledge through sustainable outreach strategies to facilitate knowledge exchange between academia and non-academia by organising events and workshops, while encouraging collaboration across GREEN TALENT’s Demonstration Pilots through shared success stories and highlighting secondees’ achievements.

Consortium partners:

For more information:

Follow the GREEN TALENT project on BlueSky and Linkedin.

Disclaimer:

Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101217375, GREEN TALENT (Building Capacity and Partnerships for Systemic Solutions to the Climate and Biodiversity Crises).

Biodiversity Knowledge Hub makes an appearance at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2025

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub fosters interoperability between diverse resources to make it easier to use and combine information.

*Gabriel Peoluze (LifeWatch ERIC) presents the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub poster at EGU 2025*
*(Vienna, Austria).*

On Monday, 28 April, the first day of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2025 (EGU 2025), participants had the chance to discover one of the most promising initiatives in biodiversity informatics: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH). BKH was presented as part of a dedicated poster session, titled “Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: Addressing the impacts of environmental change by linking Research Infrastructures, Global Aggregators and Community Networks“.

Understanding and addressing the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystems demands access to reliable FAIR data (as in Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). However, the current landscape is often fragmented, making it difficult to combine and use these resources effectively.

Enter the Horizon-funded project Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL): a pioneering initiative that demonstrates the transformative power of interdisciplinary collaboration. Coordinated by Pensoft, BiCIKL ran between 2021 and 2024.

New BiCIKL project to build a freeway between pieces of biodiversity knowledge

The Vision of BiCIKL

Within BiCIKL, 14 European institutions from ten countries teamed up with the aim to integrate biodiversity data across research infrastructures, scientific repositories, and expert communities.

Through this integration, BiCIKL bridged the gap between isolated knowledge systems and delivered actionable insights to guide conservation and resilience efforts. The project embodies the principles of open science by demonstrating how interdisciplinary collaboration can turn fragmented data into cohesive, usable knowledge for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub

At the heart of BiCIKL’s success is the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH): an innovative platform that provides seamless access to biodiversity data, tools, and workflows. The BKH fosters interoperability between diverse resources, thus making it easier to combine information from different sources. Whether for advanced research analytics or policymaking in support of sustainable development, the BKH empowers users with tools tailored to their needs.

A few of the standout features of the BKH include:

Modular design to allow continuous expansion and adaptability to new challenges in biodiversity and climate resilience
Interoperable systems that connect a variety of databases, repositories, and services to deliver integrated knowledge.
Community building by welcoming a broad network of stakeholders to ensure the platform’s long-term sustainability and growth.

Watch the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub video on YouTube.

Setting a New Benchmark in Biodiversity Informatics

Through its collaborative approach, BiCIKL set a new standard for how biodiversity and climate resilience initiatives can be harmonised globally. By showcasing best practices in data integration, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement, BiCIKL became much more than a project: it turned into a blueprint for future biodiversity knowledge infrastructures.

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub serves to demonstrate how harmonised standards and active collaboration are key to unlocking the full potential of biodiversity data. In doing so, its mission is to create scalable, long-term solutions that are crucial for addressing today’s pressing environmental challenges.

The poster presentation at EGU25 outlined the methodologies and technologies driving the BKH, emphasizing its role as a pioneering model for integrated biodiversity knowledge and action. As environmental pressures continue to mount, the work of BiCIKL and the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub offers a hopeful path forward—one where knowledge flows freely, collaborations flourish, and data-driven solutions guide our way to a more resilient future.

Visit the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project’s website at: https://bicikl-project.eu/.

Don’t forget to also explore the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH) for yourself at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu/ and watch the BKH’s introduction video.

Revisit highlights from the BiCIKL project on X/Twitter from the project’s hashtag: #BiCIKL_H2020 and handle: @BiCIKL_H2020.

BiCIKL project sums up outcomes and future prospects at a Final GA in Cambridge

Pensoft joins the Biodiversity Meets Data Horizon project to support biodiversity monitoring and conservation

As part of the new consortium, Pensoft is to use innovative communication tools in support of evidence-based biodiversity conservation across Europe.

The European Union (EU) has been working to protect nature for decades, with the Natura 2000 network now safeguarding over 18% of EU land and 9% of its marine territory. Yet, biodiversity is still in trouble, with only 50% of bird species and 15% of habitats in good conservation status.

To turn the tide, the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 will expand the existing Natura 2000 areas, implement the EU’s first-ever Nature Restoration Law, and introduce concrete measures to achieve global biodiversity targets. Success will depend on enhancing biodiversity monitoring, making better use of data and gaining a clearer picture of how nature is changing.

Addressing this urgent challenge, the EU Horizon project BMD (abbreviated for Biodiversity Meets Data) will offer a centralised platform (Single Access Point or SAP) for improved biodiversity monitoring across Europe.

Pensoft’s role

Pensoft will play a role in Biodiversity Meets Data’s impact by planning and implementing the communication, dissemination and exploitation of project results, as well as helping with the training and capacity building for BMD’s end-users, which will be led by LifeWatch ERIC. Pensoft will adopt a multi-format approach to knowledge transfer with tailored outputs for the scientific community, decision-makers, industry representatives and the general public.

Furthermore, the BMD SAP will also incorporate elements of the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH), developed under the BiCIKL project, coordinated by Pensoft.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the continuity in our projects, with the legacy of the BiCIKL project continuing with Biodiversity Meets Data. This seamless progression not only builds on our past successes but also ensures that our work continues to deliver long-lasting value to the biodiversity community.”
said Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and Founder of Pensoft, and project coordinator of BiCIKL (abbreviated from Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library).

The BMD project consortium at the project’s kick-off meeting in early March 2025 (Leiden, the Netherlands).

International consortium

Coordinated by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the project brings together 14 partner organisations from 11 countries to develop innovative solutions for biodiversity management.

Naturalis Biodiversity Center – the Netherlands
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – the United Kingdom
Meise Botanic Garden – Belgium
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – Germany
e-Science European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research – Spain
Pensoft Publishers – Bulgaria
The European Land Conservation Network – the Netherlands
University of Tartu – Estonia
Stichting Catalogue of Life – the Netherlands
The International Hellenic University – Greece
The Senckenberg Nature Research Society – Germany
The Environment Agency Austria – Austria
The National Research Council – Italy
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics – Switzerland

For more information:

Visit the BMD project website at https://bmd-project.eu/, and make sure to follow the project’s progress via our social media channels on Bluesky and Linkedin.