Living labs for co-creating solutions for the restoration of ecosystems

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• stakeholders are empowered to implement viable ecosystem restoration measures;
• competent authorities in charge of implementing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation are able to propose appropriate restoration measures;
• social, economic and environmental co-benefits and trade-offs of nature restoration activities are demonstrated, including for climate action.

Scope

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 defines nature restoration objectives in line with target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation provides that Member States shall put in place effective and area-based restoration measures. Living labs have the potential to empower a green transition towards nature restoration and climate change mitigation and adaptation by developing solutions in a co-creative manner and involving actors in real life settings to achieve large-scale impact and foster collaboration between sectors and communities.

Proposals should:

• support the set up of three living labs, with 10 to 20 experimental sites each, as places for testing and demonstrating innovative solutions to restore ecosystems following three main principles: (a) co-creation with a large set of stakeholders, (b) carried out in real-life settings and (c) involving the end-users. Transboundary living labs are encouraged and expected to be in at least three different EU Member States and/or Associated Countries, with some of them including outermost regions, islands or remote areas. Proposals should describe the rationale for cooperation across the living labs and among the stakeholders within the living labs;
• establish a work plan of activities in a transdisciplinary way, ensuring the co-design, co-development, and co-implementation of locally adapted innovative solutions;
• establish tools for each living lab to allow for an accurate assessment of the conditions and to monitor progress towards the objectives. Where relevant, the overall objective should be to reach the favourable reference areas, the good conservation status and the satisfactory levels for indicators at national levels defined in the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Water Framework Directive or the Nature Restoration Regulation;
• monitor and carry out an assessment of both the effectiveness of innovative practices for ecosystem restoration and for their non-deterioration;
• demonstrate how of the identified innovative solutions can be viable for end-users, by developing suitable business models and testing private or public support schemes such as payment for ecosystems services or nature credits as proposed in the Nature Credits Roadmap[1];
• address challenges with scaling up and transferability of solutions, developing a gender-sensitive and inclusive framework on how ecosystem health could support this work;
• disseminate the newly developed solutions to facilitate their uptake by practitioners;
• demonstrate how ecosystem restoration can support EU general policy objectives, enhancing societal resilience, and reducing natural risks.

Proposals should focus on ecosystems under one or several of the following groups:

• Transitional interfaces: Marine-coastal-terrestrial transitional ecosystems such as salt marshes, dunes, estuaries, coastal lagoons, and deltas, as well as freshwater transitions between watershed, rivers, lakes and groundwater.
• Urban-rural gradient: urban ecosystems -including parks, restored brownfields, urban forests, and green and blue infrastructures-, urban nature with surrounding peri-urban and rural ecosystems.
• Mosaic agricultural landscapes: agricultural ecosystems with high biodiversity value such as semi-natural grasslands, agroforestry systems, hedgerows, and buffer strips.
• Biodiversity corridors: linear habitats that cut across multiple land uses, such as riparian vegetation, roadsides, canal banks, and hedgerows. Ecosystem connectivity across fragmented landscapes.
• Dryland and arid ecosystems: garrigue, maquis, and steppe landscapes facing increasing threats from drought, erosion, desertification, and fire.

Projects must adopt the multi-actor approach. The actors may include researchers, land / water managers, industry representatives (e.g., SMEs), local authorities, civil society representatives (e.g., local residents, environmental NGOs, youth organisations) and/or investors. Financial support to third parties (FSTP) to facilitate active involvement of small actors (e.g., land managers, SMEs or civil society) can be provided through calls for proposals. A maximum of 30% of the EU funding should be allocated to this purpose.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines to enhance the societal impact of the related research activities.

Cooperation is expected with relevant EU-funded projects and with relevant initiatives of the partnership Biodiversa+, and appropriate resources should be foreseen to ensure close cooperation with the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) and its Science Service. The collaboration with the JRC would address JRC methodologies for ecosystem condition assessment, aligned with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting, and data and indicators identified by JRC to perform the assessment.

[1] EUR-Lex - 52025DC0374 - EN - EUR-Lex