International Cooperation and Development

As a global leader, the EU leads international efforts to address global challenges through its international partnerships policy areas. The European External Action Service (EEAS) aims to bring coherence and coordination to the European Union's international action. One can search the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (INTPA) news and events and filter them by topic such as "biodiversity and forest" or by keywords of interest, and from the EEAS newsroom and resources. Biodiversity related resources can also be retrieved from Capacity4dev - the European Commission’s knowledge sharing platform for International Cooperation and Development.

A list of global biodiversity related EU strategies and initiatives is available from the Biodiversity and ecosystems area within the Climate, environment and energy policy frame. Other policy areas such as Forests, Oceans and Sustainable food systems also include global biodiversity relevant EU initiatives.

For the current period 2021-2027, the Global Gateway is the new European strategy to boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, climate, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world. Several Funding instruments are available for EU's international cooperation, such as for example the Global Europe: Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument. Details about all funding instruments including public contracts, budget support and sector support and the various types of support to partner countries are available here.

In the context of the EU External Action, calls for proposal and tenders are available from the Funding and Tenders Portal (that has been filtered for the EU External Action). Biodiversity-related activities for development and cooperation are funded via two main types of financial instruments:

• Geographical instruments targeting a country or a region, such as the European Development Fund (EDF), the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) or the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
• Thematic programme 'Global Public Goods and Challenges' (GPGC) for issues that are not priorities under geographical instruments or issues common to groups of countries not belonging to a single region.

For example, the B4Life flagship initiative was one umbrella framework funded in the period 2014-2020; it brought together all EU cooperation activities from both thematic and geographical financial instruments. 
 

International Cooperation in Research and Innovation

To achieve the European Commission's goal "A stronger Europe in the world", international cooperation in research and innovation is a strategic priority for the EU.

Horizon Europe, the research and innovation funding programme 2021-2027 is one of the main tools for its implementation. Funding opportunities in research and innovation for biodiversity related projects can be searched at Research and opportunities in research and innovation.