Objectives

As mandated in the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Commission established in 2020 the Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) in close cooperation with the European Environment Agency. The strategy foresees that the KCBD will:

1. track and assess progress by the EU and its partners, including in relation to implementation of biodiversity-related international instruments;

2. foster cooperation and partnership, including between climate and biodiversity scientists; and

3. underpin policy development.

In addition, the КCBD has been confirmed by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as one of the European sub-regional Technical and Scientific Cooperation Support Centres (TSC) to assist 44 European Parties in the implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF).

In partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN Med) and the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), the KCBD will serve as a "one-stop service centre" providing various core functions, including access to knowledge, expertise, tools, and resources, while facilitating technology transfer, capacity building, matchmaking and  knowledge sharing.
 

Governance

The KCBD is co-chaired by DG Environment and the Joint Research Centre and it is steered by a committee with members from eight other Commission services and the European Environment Agency. The KCBD is establishing a close cooperation with other Commission services and with a broad range of research networks and collaborators.

Outputs

Some of the KCBD tools and products are:

• Relevant information (policy summaries and additional resources) about how different sectors affect or are affected by biodiversity. We keep adding new themes based on policy priorities and on the development of new analyses. Explore 'Topics' in the top menu.

• The research-policy link explorer to find links between EU-funded research and specific policy goals. Explore 'Tools' in the top menu.

• Mechanisms for tracking progress in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: an actions tracker and a dashboard. Explore 'Tools' in the top menu.

• A technical and practitioners’ forum, where a limited number of ad hoc groups were providing fast and practical support on priority policy questions (see below).

• The KCBD ticketing system for policy requests.

• Our constantly updated “News” and “Events” sections.

The KCBD forum

The KCBD technical & practitioners’ forum was launched in November 2021 to provide fast and practical support to respond to specific policy needs of the European Commission. The forum focused on topics that are cross-cutting or falling in between several policies. It provided a dynamic and flexible setting for technical discussions and/or the production of analyses that can inform policy processes. 

The forum revolved around several thematic ad hoc groups, which were established for a limited time to carry out specific technical tasks. They were: 
•    the Biodiversity financing ad hoc group, aimed at proposing an indicator to monitor progress towards the EU Biodiversity Strategy of unlocking at least €20 billion a year for biodiversity;.
•    the Biodiversity monitoring ad hoc group, aimed at (i) clarifying EU policy needs and actors related to monitoring, and (ii) finding ways to enhance biodiversity monitoring networks in the EU. 

These groups brought together participants from EU bodies and other technical experts or practitioners invited in their personal capacity.

The KCBD is part of the broader Knowledge4Policy (K4P) initiative, which supports evidence-based policy-making: bridging the world of policy-makers (who ideally develop public policy based on sound scientific evidence) and of scientists (who develop that evidence in the first place).

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