Our global economy is intrinsically dependent on nature, and at the same time is playing a major role in its degradation. Recognition of this fact has grown substantially in the past decade, as evidenced in the EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030. However, transformative, system-wide changes are still needed to achieve the nature-positive outcomes required to 'bend the curve' of biodiversity loss. While the business case for economic actors to address biodiversity is becoming clearer in some sectors, it is still lacking in others, particularly those more removed from direct interactions with nature. SUSTAIN (Strengthening Understanding and Strategies of business To Assess and Integrate Nature) will bring together a multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary team to strengthen understanding and awareness of how all economic activities depend and impact on biodiversity. The project will build on existing work within the business and biodiversity space to develop and validate a database of business dependencies and impacts, develop methods that actors can use to reduce biodiversity-related risks, and a toolbox to support their application. The consortium will drive uptake of these resources through dissemination of targeted business case materials, drawing on existing networks and expertise in communicating with businesses, financial institutions and other key stakeholders.

The overall objective of EU-VNP-Net is to establish, support and energise an EU Valuing Nature Network of Networks (EU-VNN) and to implement a prioritised EU Valuing Nature Programme (EU-VNP) that, together, build synergies and collaborations among relevant existing and emerging networks (global, EU, national, sector, thematic, research and innovation), accelerate mainstreaming and operationalization of natural capital (NC) by businesses across the EU – in particular through uptake of NC assessment, NC accounting (NCA), nature-based solutions (NBS) and green infrastructure (GI) – and thereby contribute to the green economy and sustainable development. The EU-VNP will: (1) bring together, taking stock of and showcase relevant work being undertaken in the EU; (2) shape business perception in the EU of the value of nature as a business opportunity and as a means of reducing business risk and fostering sustainable business; (3) facilitate corporate uptake in the EU of the Natural Capital Protocol, which enables businesses to integrate NC in to business decision-making frameworks and models; (4) stimulate uptake in the EU of NCA so that businesses and their stakeholders are better aware of the value of nature in relation to business, and strengthen coherence between private and public sector work on NCA; (5) stimulate uptake in the EU of NBS, GI and related ecosystem-based solutions that enable businesses to reduce impacts and dependencies on NC and deliver benefits for both nature and business; (6) ensure that approaches adopted are optimal and scientifically rigorous; (7) explore options for a longer-term EU-VNN and/or EU-VNP beyond end of project. EU-VNP-Net will deliver impact through: (1) mainstreaming NC assessment, NCA, NBS and GI in business decision-making frameworks and models; (2) business decision-makers acknowledging the micro-and macro-economic relevance and value of NC approaches; (3) attracting private and public funding for further adoption.

Terra Nova: The New Learning Initiative between Humanities and Science: Mapping Past Environments and Energy Regimes, Rethinking Human Environment Interaction and Designing Land Management Tools for Policy. This project aims at improving our diachronic long term understanding of landscape histories and land use strategies in Europe in the Holocene and Anthropocene. Previously identified socio-cultural transitions and the effects of natural forcings will be critically assessed in a new intellectual interdisciplinary arena created by the Terra Nova project. Regional and continental syntheses will be used to anchor a new generation of landscape and climate change models which include the effects of past human actions and generate scenarios for landscape management and rewilding. Ultimately this project will contribute to identifying major previous shifts in resource use and energy regimes and provide options for the future transition to a low carbon society. Can we identify a balance between natural and cultural landscapes changing over space and time? Can we establish a natural reference for ‘European landscapes’ to evaluate current and future measures of landscape planning, ecosystem restoration and rewilding? Or are both systems so intertwined that the separation of the human from the natural is complex and scale and time dependant? Some researchers mark the industrial revolution as the start of the Anthropocene, others argue that long ago humans in Europe had a larger influence than natural processes upon the landscape. Notwithstanding these differences, there is consensus that the intensity of management and impacts of land management on natural systems today is unprecedented. This leads on to consideration of themes of sustainability and societal impact upon landscapes in the 21st century. From this perspective knowledge of past energy regimes and landscape interactions are essential components in understanding the present transition to a low carbon society.

NetworkNature will establish a European and global platform allowing all interested stakeholders to access and contribute cutting-edge, innovative knowledge and expertise on nature-based solutions (NBS). Our consortium represents all relevant stakeholder groups and has access to a range of related networks. We have a strong track record and extensive expertise on this topic in terms of engagement, content, technical know-how and involvement in relevant policy processes at European Union (EU) and global level. This allows us to maximise the EU’s potential to become a global leader in deploying innovative NBS to address societal challenges, building on the ongoing work of all Horizon 2020 and BiodivERsA-funded NBS projects as well as relevant other initiatives and programmes in Europe and beyond. The project’s legacy will be ensured through establishing a sustainable platform structure that responds to the needs of the NBS community of innovators based on a sound and stable business model; providing support to and strengthening the NBS community, particularly small and medium enterprises, practitioners and policy-makers, to foster market uptake as well as the transfer and application of innovative NBS; by providing targeted dialogue opportunities across Europe and in regions, guidance and capacity building as well as using advocacy as vehicle to nurture NBS through policy, research and practice, particularly for design and standardisation; and, finally, by building on existing global initiatives to continue enhancing international cooperation to upscale the implementation of NBS. NetworkNature will help transform the EU’s vision of becoming a leader for NBS into reality through a comprehensive, up-to-date, open, user-oriented platform for NBS, building on the dynamic, but to date less streamlined development across the involved stakeholders, projects, existing platforms and policies in the EU over the past years.

NetworkNature+ will continue NetworkNature’s legacy as a ‘network of networks’ and expand it to engage new audiences in addressing the societal challenges outlined by the EU. It will maintain and enhance the established evidence/demand/policy-driven multi-stakeholder platform for NBS, strengthening partnerships and fostering new relationships around a clear strategic framework for action, underpinned by an updated EU Research & Innovation NBS Roadmap and complementary analysis of policy opportunities for integrating NBS at EU, Member State, regional and local level in view of EU 2030 policy targets and EU Missions. NetworkNature+ will provide scientific NBS insights across selected policy priorities and different European and international contexts. This will guide our work around dialogue, stakeholder interactions, knowledge sharing and awareness raising, resulting in products, standards and advisory services that support the growing NBS community of innovators, practitioners and developers. A targeted training and capacity building programme will promote a step change from siloed, project-based thinking towards an integrated, systemic and stakeholder-led approach to NBS planning, design and investment, while leveraging the role of ecosystems as critical infrastructure that support regenerative economic activities and help reduce biodiversity loss. We will enable regional and Europe-wide transdisciplinary collaboration to answer identified R&I needs for NBS via knowledge exchange between EU-funded NBS R&I projects and stakeholders, together with skills development and capacity building for target groups from science, policy, business and society. International collaboration with key strategic partners (e.g. UNCBD, IPBES, IPCC, UNFCCC, UNEP, UNDRR) and selected regions will enable European expertise to inform the global NBS discourse, contributing to the EC’s vision of “a stronger Europe in the world” and supporting new investments for NBS.