What is BIONEXT?

BIONEXT is a research and innovation project that joins the fight for nature and biodiversity. The project produces new evidence to better understand biodiversity loss and demonstrates how biodiversity underpins every aspect of life; the water we drink, the food we eat, and our health. To secure and protect these values, the project demands transformative change: BIONEXT’s goal is a sustainable society, where links between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport, climate, and health are acknowledged and nature and biodiversity are a part of everyday choices and policymaking.

BIONEXT creates and offers science-based solutions and tools for reversing biodiversity loss and achieving regenerative, nature-centered futures and societies. The project creates new knowledge and science-based solutions for sustainable futures, for example, for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), EU policymakers, and civil society.

BIONEXT brings together science and scientists from different fields and creates a network of scientists who are ambitious to create practical and effective solutions for halting biodiversity loss.

BIONEXT is funded by the EU’s research and innovation program Horizon Europe and by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee 10039588. The project is coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke). The project is executed in four years (2022–2026) and the consortium has ten partners from eight European countries. The project received funding of 4,1 million euros.

What are we doing and how?

Who are we?

BIONEXT timeline

BIONEXT glossary

Biodiversity loss

Biodiversity loss is when the reduction of any aspect of biological diversity (i.e., diversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels) is lost in a particular area through death (including extinction), destruction or manual removal; it can refer to many scales, from global extinctions to population extinctions, resulting in decreased total diversity at the same scale (source: IPBES).

Biodiversity nexus

BIONEXT’s research operates within the biodiversity nexus.

The biodiversity nexus demonstrates the diverse, intertwined relationships between people and nature. It shows how our resource use affects nature and biodiversity and vice versa.

Uncovering the interlinkages and interdependencies between the elements of biodiversity, water, food, energy, health, climate, and transport is crucial to better understanding the biodiversity nexus. By understanding the biodiversity nexus, we can make better decisions on how we manage and interact with nature and biodiversity.

Transformative change

BIONEXT demands transformative change.

Transformative change is needed to address the major challenges to nature and humankind, such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and social injustices. Transformative change means that we move beyond just fixing problems and instead fundamentally shift how we interact with the natural world. Generating such fundamental shifts in our mindsets, policies, and practices demands action from all, from citizens to policymakers.

A change is only transformative if it shakes up ecological, technological, and socio-economic systems.

BIONEXT project in numbers

4 years

20222026

10 partners

8 countries

4.1 million euros

 

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