Info

/EPBRS in a nutshell

Everything you wanted to know about the EPBRS can be found in 'EPBRS in a nutshell' (pdf)

/EPBRS secretariat

EPBRS Secretariat
Belgian Biodiversity Platform
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Rue Vautier 29,
1000 Brussels, Belgium
Phone : +32 2 627 4319
Fax : +32 2 627 4113
estelle.balian(at)naturalsciences.be

/Steering Committee

During the Czech EPBRS meeting (May 2009) the participants partly renewed the Steering Committee.

The following persons are now members of the Steering Committee:

Jürgen Tack (Chair), Sybille van den Hove (Vice-chair), Carsten Neßhöver (Secretary)

Per Backe-Hansen (Member), Rudy Herman (Member), Horst Korn (Member), Peter Skoberne (Member), Isabel Sousa Pinto (Member), Luis Santamaria (Member), Louise Scally (Member), Andrew Stott (Member), Allan Watt (Member), Martin Sharman (ex-officio member European Commission), Katalin Török (ex-officio member as coordinator of the SSA Biostrat) and Xavier Le Roux (ex-officio member as coordinator of the ERA-Net BiodivERsA).

Secretariat EPBRS: Estelle Balian : estelle.balian@naturalsciences.be (Belgian Biodiversity Platform)

/EPBRS official delegates

EPBRS meetings are only open to invited participants. Invited participants are official country delegates nominated by their FP7 Programme Committee Members, Biostrat members (more information on Biostrat can be found below), the EPBRS secretariat, interested members of the European Commission, FP6 and FP7 project coordinators (biodiversity related projects), representatives of major biodiversity science organisations (e.g. DIVERSITAS and GBIF) and representatives of major environmental organisations (e.g. CBD, IUCN,...). The organisers are free to invite additional experts.
The official nominated country delegates are:

/Biostrat

BioStrat is a Specific Support Action (SSA) funded by the EU Sixth Framework Programme starting on the 1st of November 2006 and coordinated by the Institute of Ecology and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The project invoves 34 partners from 32 countries and aims to further develop the EU Biodiversity Research Strategy making wise use of the existing structures. To achieve its objective, the project will take over a part of the tasks addressed by Bioplatform, an FP5-funded project in the period 2002-2005: the financial and management charges associated with the organization of the biannual meetings of the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) and its publications; and the establishment and support of National Biodiversity Platforms. On the other hand, it will carry out an intensive networking activity to harmonize the Strategy with other FP5 and FP6 projects and other international initiatives (such as BIOTA cluster, ERA-Nets, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), DIVERSITAS, Global Biodiversity Information Facility /GBIF/, Global Taxonomy Initiative /GTI/, Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), Global Environment Observation System of Systems /GEOSS /, etc.). Further, a main duty of BioStrat is to promote the production of national reviews related to the topic of EPBRS meetings, in which National Biodiversity Platforms have a key role. These national reviews will provide excellent opportunities to promote scientific and policy results in certain topics in the given country. Biostrat website.

/National Biodiversity Platforms

The effectiveness of the EPBRS increases when it can collaborate with national platforms whose aims are similar - to develop a national research strategy in biodiversity and to promote research that responds to policy requirements. National Platform websites:

• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hungaria
• Ireland
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• UK

/Bioplatform

The European Platform for Biodiversity (Bioplatform) is a Thematic Network (EU FP5) aiming to improve the effectiveness and relevance of European biodiversity research, to contribute to European Research Area for Biodiversity and to promote the dissemination of current best practices and information regarding the scientific understanding of biodiversity conservation. The BioPlatform thematic network supported the "European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy" (EPBRS) up to the beginning of 2005. The website contains a lot of relevant information linked to EPBRS. It is also the gateway to the national biodiversity platforms. Bioplatform website