The 8th European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB 2026) was held on 6-10 July 2026 at Leiden University, the Netherlands, under the overarching theme of effective biodiversity conservation.

The congress gathered over 850 participants, including some 700 European researchers in biodiversity conservation. A strong element to this edition of ECCB was around the science-policy interface addressed, in particular, at the opening and closing keynotes.

The opening keynotes brought together speakers from the European Commission (EC), including a former Executive Vice-President of the EC, the Director-General of the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), the Director of the Directorate for Sustainable Resources of the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and The Netherlands CBD focal point. The JRC contribution was titled "The Science for Policy Interface: Biodiversity in support of sustainable competitiveness". Speakers then joined a plenary roundtable, "Towards effective biodiversity conservation", addressing both policy support and communication around biodiversity loss.

Alongside the many sessions relevant to JRC work, representatives of the EC’s Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) contributed to a session on the European Subregional Technical and Scientific Cooperation Support Centre (TSCC) organised by COOP4CBD, in partnership with IUCN's Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN Med) and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). The roundtable introduced the TSCC's governance, objectives and workplan, and invited participants to contribute to its knowledge-management and capacity-building activities.

Other contributions from the EC during the week came from a representative from the DG ENV who addressed conservation in EU policies, allowing participants to better understand the complex mechanisms of policy development and implementation.

The closing day featured a plenary talk by a Member of the European Parliament, stressing the importance of science in policymaking and referred to JRC work. The JRC/KCBD closed the congress with a summary of observations from the week, highlighting existing opportunities for scientists to engage with policymakers and the need to mobilise the European scientific community behind a common European spatial plan and infrastructure for conservation.