Biodiversity is changing rapidly worldwide, driven by threats such as invasive species and fragmented restoration efforts. To meet the targets of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Global Biodiversity Framework, countries need large-scale, timely and high-quality data to track the status and trends of key species and habitats. This monitoring is essential to prevent further deterioration by 2030 and to target restoration and nature-based solutions where they are most needed.
In response to this challenge, the new EU Horizon project BEAGLE, named after Darwin’s ship as a carrier of critical biodiversity information, aims to deliver next-generation biodiversity monitoring across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems in the EU and Associated Countries. It will do so by generating new data and mobilising already existing ones, using AI to process them, turning them into indicators and maps that directly inform and measure progress on EU policy targets.
Officially started on 1 October 2026, the Horizon Europe project BEAGLE will run for four years. Coordinated by Aarhus University, it brings together 17 organisations from 12 countries to turn fragmented data into policy-ready evidence and ensure the outputs drive real change.
BEAGLE is structured around four core objectives:
- Strengthening the EU’s biodiversity monitoring network;
- Operationalising high-throughput in situ observation tools;
- Integrating validated data into open platforms and modelling workflows;
- Developing a knowledge framework to support ecosystem recovery.
As Toke Thomas Høye (Aarhus University), the coordinator of BEAGLE puts it:
BEAGLE builds on the strong foundations of previous European biodiversity initiatives, bringing together existing data, networks, and technologies to deliver up to one billion species records, over 1,000 sensors, thousands of eDNA samples, Essential Biodiversity Variables, and policy-relevant indicators. Our ambition is to turn these results into practical tools that continue to support biodiversity monitoring, restoration and decision-making long after the project ends.
Pensoft’s role
As the partner responsible for communication, dissemination, and exploitation, Pensoft will lead the strategy for raising BEAGLE’s visibility among scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and the wider public, while ensuring the project’s outputs reach the audiences best placed to use them. This includes designing and maintaining the project’s website and social media channels and coordinating materials such as newsletters, videos, and infographics to communicate BEAGLE’s progress and findings in an accessible way. Pensoft will also support the dissemination of scientific results through open-access publishing, in line with its long-standing commitment to open science.
Pensoft has always been a defender of open access to biodiversity data. As such, we are happy to help maximise BEAGLE’s impact in turning biodiversity data into meaningful action. The project connects monitoring technology, science, and policy to create a more integrated understanding of how our environment is changing and how we can better protect and restore it.
– Nikol Stoykova, Senior Communications Officer at Pensoft Publishers
Consortium partners:
- Aarhus University – Denmark
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research – Norway
- Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement – France
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich – Switzerland
- Harokopio University – Greece
- SimplexDNA – Switzerland
- Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique – France
- Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum – Germany
- Eurac Research – Italy
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Secretariat – Denmark
- Institut de Ciències del Mar – Spain
- Pensoft Publishers – Bulgaria
- Water Research Institute – Slovakia
- CIBIO/BIOPOLIS – Research center in biodiversity and genetic resources – Portugal
- University of Montpellier – France
- University of Bucharest – Romania
- Advanced Identification Methods – Germany
For more information:
While the BEAGLE project website is under development, make sure to follow the project’s progress via our social media channels on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Disclaimer:
BEAGLE (Biodiversity methods for advanced monitoring at large scales) receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (ID No 101288886). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union and the European Research Executive Agency (REA). The EU and REA cannot be held responsible for them.
