Novel ecosystems: biodiversity, socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories

BiodivFuture is a Biodiversa+ transnational research and innovation call on novel ecosystems, biodiversity, socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories with an indicative total budget of €40,000,000 and expected project duration of three years, operating a multiple cut-off model with submission deadlines on 10 November 2026 and 16 April 2027. The call funds interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research across terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal systems addressing drivers, biological responses, risks, trade-offs and pathways for resilient and nature-positive futures, organised around themes including ecosystem functioning, pathways to novel ecosystems, and biodiversity benefits and equity. Eligible applicants must form transnational consortia requesting support from at least three participating funding organisations across a minimum of three financially participating countries, including partners from at least two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Applications follow a mandatory two-step process (pre-proposal then full proposal) submitted in English via the Biodiversa+ EPSS and are evaluated by independent experts on fit, novelty, excellence, implementation and impact.

Call at a glance

Essential facts

Transnational research call (BiodivFuture) under the Biodiversa-plus / European Biodiversity Partnership to fund research on novel ecosystems, their drivers, functioning, socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories.

Who can apply:Transnational consortia of eligible research partners from at least 3 different countries financially participating in the call and requesting support from a minimum of 3 different funding organisations, including at least two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Proposals must be in English and each partner must follow their national/regional funding rules ¹.

1. 1What is funded: Novel, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects addressing causes, responses and outcomes of novel ecosystems across terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal realms and their societal/policy relevance.
2. 2Project duration and scale: Projects are expected to run for about 3 years; total call budget ~€40,000,000.
3. 3Application process and evaluation: Two-step submission (mandatory pre-proposal then full proposal) evaluated for fit to scope, novelty and impact (step 1) and scientific excellence, implementation quality and impact (step 2).

Research may address one or several thematic priorities:A) Novel ecosystem functioning, B) Pathways to novel ecosystems, C) Biodiversity benefits and equity in the context of novel ecosystems. Applicants must read the full call documents and national eligibility pages before applying ¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Full call documents, participating funding organisations, national eligibility rules and application portal are available from the Biodiversa+ BiodivFuture call pages: biodiversa.eu

Opportunity summary and administrative details

Call organised under the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa-plus). Call name:BiodivFuture. Opening date: 09 September 2026. Deadlines (multiple cut-off model): 10 November 2026 12:00 Brussels time and 16 April 2027 12:00 Brussels time. Expected project duration: 3 years. Total indicative co-funded budget available for the call: €40,000,000. Proposals must be written in English and submitted through the Biodiversa+ Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS).

Primary URL and information sources:Official call page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and Biodiversa+ call pages contain full documentation and participating funding organisations BiodivFuture call information EU Funding Portal opportunity. See also EPSS at proposals.etag.ee. Further details and national eligibility are published by each participating funding organisation. ¹

Eligible Applicant Types

Eligible applicant organisations are research partners forming transnational research consortia. Typical eligible organisation types include universities, public research institutes, research-performing SMEs, non-profit research organisations, NGOs and other research performing bodies that meet the national/regional eligibility requirements of the participating funding organisations. Each research partner must comply with the eligibility criteria and rules of its respective national or regional funding organisation. Private companies may participate if eligible under particular national rules; the call emphasises academic research institutions and transdisciplinary consortia including non-academic stakeholders.

Funding Type

Primary financial mechanism:grant (co-funded by national/regional funding organisations and the European Commission through the Biodiversa+ partnership). The call is a research grant funding instrument administered via national/regional funders participating in the transnational call.

Consortium Requirement

Consortium required. Transnational research consortia must include eligible research partners from a minimum of three different countries that financially participate in the call and request support from at least three different funding organisations. Among these, the consortium must include partners from at least two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility)

Geographic eligibility is transnational across participating countries. At minimum consortia must include partners from participating countries, which must include at least two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. The full and up-to-date list of participating funding organisations and countries, their reserved budgets and national/regional eligibility rules is published on the Biodiversa+ website and must be consulted by applicants for confirmation of eligibility by country and funder. The call is open to research actions in all world regions (thematic scope includes all realms), but funding eligibility depends on participation of national funders for each partner.

Target Sector and Thematic Focus

Thematic sector:biodiversity and socio-ecological research. Relevant scientific and disciplinary domains include ecological and environmental sciences, conservation biology, social sciences, humanities, economics, technical sciences where relevant (e.g., ecological modelling, remote sensing), and transdisciplinary approaches involving stakeholders and end users. The research addresses terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal realms, and focuses on novel ecosystems and their socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories.

Project Stage and Expected Maturity

Expected project maturity:research and development at research and demonstration/validation levels. The call funds three-year collaborative research projects intended to produce new scientific knowledge, interdisciplinary understanding, actionable pathways and policy-relevant outputs. Projects may range from fundamental research to applied, co-produced research with stakeholders, including scenario development and pathway design toward nature-positive socio-ecological transformation.

Funding Amount and Budgeting

Total call budget:€40,000,000 (indicative). The call does not publish a single fixed project grant amount in the scraped content; project funding per consortium will depend on national funder budgets and decisions. Applicants must consult national funders' pages on the Biodiversa+ website for reserved budgets and maximum request amounts per country and per project. Project duration is expected to be three years; budget lines and eligible costs will follow the rules of the respective national/regional funding organisations and the call documents.

Application Type and Submission Process

Application type:open competitive transnational call with a two-step submission procedure. Step 1 is mandatory submission of a pre-proposal. Applicants passing step 1 are invited to submit full proposals at step 2 via the EPSS. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Biodiversa+ EPSS. The call uses a multiple cut-off deadline model with specified cut-off dates. Proposals must be written exclusively in English.

Nature of Support

Beneficiaries receive monetary support in the form of research grants administered by national and regional funding organisations participating in the transnational call. In addition to monetary support, the partnership provides non-monetary services such as access to the EPSS, guidance documents, national funder information, and evaluation support through independent experts; applicants are encouraged to use partner search tools and EPSS helpdesk services.

Application Stages and Assessment Criteria

Number of application stages:2 (pre-proposal stage and full proposal stage). Assessment is by independent experts against defined criteria. At step 1 (pre-proposal): proposals evaluated on fit to the call scope, novelty, and impact. At step 2 (full proposal): evaluation covers scientific excellence, quality and efficiency of implementation, and impact including policy and societal impact and stakeholder engagement. Proposals must demonstrate significant transnational added value and are expected to be interdisciplinary and preferably transdisciplinary.

Success Rates

No explicit overall success rate is provided in the call documentation scraped. Success rates will depend on the number and quality of submitted pre-proposals and full proposals, and on available budgets per participating funder. Historical Biodiversa+ call success rates vary by year and topic; applicants should consult previous call reports and the Biodiversa+ website for indicative statistics.

Co-funding Requirement

Co-funding:Projects are co-funded via the consortium partners from national/regional funding organisations that allocate budgets to the transnational call. Specific co-funding rules, required own contribution or national eligibility depend on each funding organisation's rules. Each partner must comply with its national/regional funder rules regarding cost eligibility, co-funding rates, and reporting. Applicants must consult the participating funding organisations list and national guidelines for detailed co-funding requirements.

Themes and Scientific Scope

The call's scientific scope addresses biodiversity and novel ecosystems, their socio-ecological dynamics, and future trajectories in support of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals. Research should investigate drivers, biological responses, and outcomes including opportunities, risks and trade-offs across terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal realms and in any world region. Projects must clarify how they address novel ecosystems and may adopt holistic, systemic and integrated approaches to produce societally relevant knowledge and pathways for resilient ecosystem states and nature-positive transformations.

1. 1Theme A – Novel ecosystem functioning: understand functioning of novel ecosystems, links to socio-cultural and socio-economic dynamics, mechanisms and approaches to facilitate biodiversity gains.
2. 2Theme B – Pathways to novel ecosystems: study robust, plausible and concrete pathways and associated socio-ecological dynamics to prosper under temporal asynchronies and uncertainties.
3. 3Theme C – Biodiversity benefits and equity: study fair and equitable sharing of biodiversity benefits in the context of novel ecosystems, with inclusive, collaborative and investment-oriented pathways for nature-positive socio-ecological transformation.

Definition and conceptual requirements

Proposals must explicitly demonstrate how they address novel ecosystems. The commonly referenced conceptual framework (Hobbs et al. 2013) defines novel ecosystems as systems of abiotic, biotic and social components altered by human influence, showing novel self-organised community structures and functions and being unlikely to revert to historical conditions. The call acknowledges plurality of definitions and disciplines; proposals must declare and justify their working definition and show how their methods and interpretation align with the chosen conceptual framing.

Participating Countries and National Funders

The call is transnational and funded by a network of national and regional funding organisations participating in Biodiversa+. The full and current list of participating funding organisations, reserved budgets by funder and national/regional eligibility conditions is published on the Biodiversa+ website and must be consulted by applicants to verify which countries and funders are part of the 2026-2027 call. The call requires consortium partners from at least three financially participating countries. ¹

Assessment and reviewer criteria detail

At pre-proposal stage reviewers focus on call fit, novelty and expected impact. At full proposal stage reviewers assess: scientific excellence; quality and efficiency of implementation including work plan, management, resources and consortium composition; and impact covering expected policy and societal influence and stakeholder engagement. Projects should demonstrate transnational added value, interdisciplinary composition across natural, technical and social sciences and humanities as appropriate, and ideally transdisciplinary co-production with non-academic stakeholders. Applicants must consult Call Document 6 for full assessment criteria and scoring rules.

Templates and application structure

Application uses a two-step EPSS template. While the specific EPSS forms are accessible after sign-in, the structure is typically: administrative forms per partner; a pre-proposal scientific description (summary, objectives, relevance to call, novelty, expected impact, high-level work plan and consortium description); and in the full proposal stage: extended technical annex with detailed objectives, methodology, work packages, deliverables, milestones, detailed budget per partner according to national rules, management and consortium governance, data management plan, ethics and exploitation/dissemination plan, stakeholder engagement and pathway-to-impact activities. Applicants must use the EPSS forms and follow the Call Document 1 and national funder templates. EPSS helpdesk is available at epss.biodiversa@g.etag.ee.

Practical recommendations for applicants

Consult and align with national funding organisation eligibility and budget rules before forming consortia; verify participating countries and reserved budgets on the Biodiversa+ funding organisations page; prepare a multidisciplinary consortium including social sciences and stakeholders for transdisciplinary co-production; ensure the proposal clearly defines novel ecosystems, research questions, and pathways to policy and practice; design realistic three-year workplans with deliverables and stakeholder engagement; follow EPSS templates and mandatory submission steps; and budget according to national funder rules.

Quick reference table

Mentioned countries

No specific list of individual countries is provided in the scraped content. The call requires at least two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries among consortium partners and otherwise includes those countries whose national funding organisations participate. Applicants must consult the Biodiversa+ funding organisations page for the up-to-date list of participating countries and funders. ¹

Concluding summary

This open transnational research call, BiodivFuture, organised under the Biodiversa-plus European Biodiversity Partnership, funds three-year collaborative research projects examining novel ecosystems, their biodiversity dynamics, socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories. The call aims to produce interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research with societal and policy impact, aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, across terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal realms worldwide. Consortia must include partners from at least three financially participating countries and three funding organisations, including two EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries. Applications follow a mandatory two-step submission via the Biodiversa+ EPSS, evaluated on fit, novelty and impact at pre-proposal stage and on excellence, implementation and impact at full proposal stage. Total indicative budget is €40 million. Applicants must consult the official call documents and national funding organisations for detailed eligibility, budgets, templates and co-funding rules and use the EPSS for submission.

Footnotes

1. 1Full details, participating funding organisations, national eligibility rules, reserved budgets and call documents are available on the Biodiversa+ website and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: biodiversa.eu and ec.europa.eu

BiodivFuture is a Biodiversa+ transnational research and innovation call on novel ecosystems, biodiversity, socio-ecological consequences and future trajectories, with a total budget of €40 millioneuro, an expected project duration of 3 years, and a multiple cut-off deadline model with calls due on 10 November 2026 and 16 April 2027.[2][3][4][8]

What the funding is about

The call supports future-looking research on biodiversity and novel ecosystems, including their drivers, biological responses, opportunities, risks and trade-offs across terrestrial, freshwater, marine and coastal systems worldwide, with an explicit focus on holistic, systemic and integrated approaches that can support resilient and functioning ecosystems and inform policy and societal action.[2][4][8]

• Theme A covers novel ecosystem functioning, including links to socio-cultural and socio-economic dynamics and approaches that can facilitate biodiversity gains.[2][4][8]
• Theme B covers pathways to novel ecosystems, including robust, plausible and concrete trajectories under uncertainty and temporal asynchronies.[2][4][8]
• Theme C covers biodiversity benefits and equity in the context of novel ecosystems, including fair sharing of benefits and inclusive, collaborative and investment-oriented pathways for nature-positive socio-ecological transformation.[2][4][8]

Applicants must demonstrate that their proposal addresses novel ecosystems within the conceptual framework used by the call, while recognising that the concept is evolving and may be approached from multiple disciplinary perspectives.[2][4][8]

Who can apply

Eligible applicants must form a transnational research consortium composed of eligible research partners from at least 3 different countries financially participating in the call, requesting support from at least 3 different funding organisations, and including at least two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.[2][4]

Proposals must be written exclusively in English, and each research partner must comply with the eligibility criteria and rules of its own national or regional funding organisation.[2][3][4]

The call places strong emphasis on transnational added value, interdisciplinary research and, where relevant, transdisciplinary collaboration with non-academic stakeholders to co-produce knowledge of high societal relevance.[2]

How applications are evaluated

• Step 1 pre-proposal evaluation focuses on fit to the call scope, novelty of the research and impact.[2]
• Step 2 full proposal evaluation focuses on scientific excellence, quality and efficiency of implementation, and impact including expected policy and societal impact and stakeholder engagement.[2]
• Independent experts evaluate the proposals, so applicants should prepare a robust scientific case together with a clear implementation and impact strategy.[2]

Funding, timing and practical conditions

The portal excerpt does not state a single common funding rate, minimum grant size or maximum grant size for all projects, so applicants should rely on the participating funding organisations pages and the call documents for the applicable national or regional financial rules and limits.[2][3][12]

The official call information and supporting documents are hosted on the Biodiversa+ website and the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, including the announcement of opportunity, the call page and the participating funding organisations list.[2][3][4]