News
A new €7.3 million Horizon Europe project, MARCO-BOLO (MARine Coastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations), has been launched to connect and strengthen existing European coastal and marine biodiversity observation capabilities across Europe, while linking these to global efforts. The project aims to improve the acquisition, coordination and delivery of marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observations to relevant users, and to test new tools, technologies and models to better understand biodiversity decline.
The project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has four key objectives. These include improving the acquisition and coordination of marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observations, enabling technologies for cost-effective, timely and accurate biodiversity observations, testing new tools, technologies, and models to better understand biodiversity decline, and empowering European biodiversity observatory operators, data producers, and users by creating and sharing best practice guidelines for gathering and using biodiversity data to contribute to biodiversity restoration efforts.
The OBIS Secretariat is involved in various project activities, including delivering Essential Ocean/Biodiversity Variables (EOVs) for marine and coastal systems, developing protocols and standard operating procedures for eDNA-based approaches, and contributing to the establishment and co-coordination of a Community of Practice for the project (the “MARCO-BOLO CoP”). Through the CoP, biodiversity data generators and users will be brought together to co-design and co-develop tools and services that are fit for purpose and suit the needs of users, including policy makers, industry, researchers, civil society, and other stakeholder groups.
MARCO-BOLO’s kick-off meeting was held in Paris from 14 to 15 March 2023. Over 80 participants from 28 partner institutions across 14 countries attended the meeting, which included representatives from the European Commission, the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), EU4OceanObs, Biodiversa+, and related European-funded Horizon Europe and H2020 projects.
During the meeting, the OBIS Secretariat presented initial plans to establish and coordinate the MARCO-BOLO CoP, which aims to ensure that key stakeholders are consulted and involved throughout the process through a series of co-design workshops. Discussions centred on the overall structure of the CoP, the first co-design workshop scheduled for September 2023, and a stakeholder profiling exercise to identify key users to invite to the CoP.
Over the next four years, the MARCO-BOLO project will enable transformative change throughout the research pipeline from data collection to use, and for a better-coordinated global observing system. The project will test new monitoring tools using eDNA, robotics, optical and acoustic techniques, and develop data integration methods for environmental modelling, among other activities.
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Contacts:
Associate Project Manager: Lisa Benedetti | l.benedetti@unesco.org