(Science|Business) Data Corner: Commission’s new biodiversity call follows years of funding decline

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The budget for biodiversity-related research under Cluster 6 of Horizon Europe has been shrinking for years. Plans by the European Commission to launch a horizontal call in this area may go some way to plug the gap, although as yet its budget is unknown. At the same time, it will link biodiversity research with other disciplines across the programme, rather than treating it as an isolated issue.

Collaborative research on biodiversity mainly falls under Cluster 6 of Horizon Europe, which covers food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment. Four years into the programme, 840 grants have been issued under the cluster, nearly a fifth of the total for Pillar 2. Environmentally friendly food system projects dominate, but biodiversity and ecosystem services research is also well represented, with 108 projects to date, worth €714.1 million.

These projects address topics ranging from understanding chemical pollution in terrestrial wildlife to reinforcing coastal and marine biodiversity observation capabilities, with EU funding flowing in large part to Germany and France.

But the flow of money is falling, with EU funding for biodiversity projects under Cluster 6 dropping from €295.7 million in 2021, to €137.9 million in 2022, to €165.3 million in 2023, to €115.1 million in 2024. Over the four years, this represents a 61% decline. Biodiversity-related funding in the rest of Pillar 2 does not make up the difference.

Despite its interlinkages with many other sectors, conserving biodiversity is less prevalent in the public discourse than other environmental topics, the sign of a failure to grasp the role of biodiversity in supporting key ecosystem services and the risks that its decline poses to economic stability, human health and environmental resilience.

Yet, studying the nexus between ongoing pressures on biodiversity and challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, health emergencies and water scarcity, is critical to understand how these compound each other, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

For example, when ecosystems help mitigate global warming by acting as a carbon sink, biodiversity loss hampers their ability to absorb carbon, thereby increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and speeding up climate change. 

The problem is that researchers frequently face a lack of support to work across several disciplines, which is essential to address the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss like unsustainable consumption patterns. Ultimately, this hinders the development of appropriate policies.

But with the planned horizontal activities, the Commission is hoping to move beyond the separate clusters of Horizon Europe and make biodiversity loss a more systemic, cross-sectoral issue. This approach should also help it meet its target of devoting 10% of its overall 2026-27 budget to biodiversity and support its biodiversity strategy for 2030.

The European Environment Agency, however, estimates that the budget target is unlikely to be met, with projections suggesting an allocation of just 8.5%. 

Total EU biodiversity funding is expected to drop to €28.5 billion by 2027, from €31.8 billion in 2021, falling short of a €54 billion estimate to meet the EU biodiversity and ecosystem restoration targets over the current budgetary cycle.