Approved for Scoping: 2025

Lead BF Member: ANR Estimated launch timeframe: 2028 Brief Summary:  

Global environmental changes have already transgressed several planetary boundaries, and the scientific community now largely agrees that we have entered a sixth mass extinction crisis. This extensive biodiversity loss is staggering, threatening essential ecosystem services with an estimated economic replacement cost of 125 trillion USD per year.

 

A critical knowledge gap for sustainable management is the insufficient support for long-term ecological research and the lack of mechanistic data required to understand spatio-temporal ecosystem dynamics. This issue is particularly pronounced for soil biodiversity and soil health, a fundamental but often neglected component for which no large-scale, long-term monitoring programs currently exist.

 

The main goal of BIODIVERSITY 3 is to complement and connect existing international long-term ecological research infrastructures at a broader transdisciplinary scale. It is designed to actively bridge the gap between the critical but short-term, co-designed projects fostered by the Belmont Forum and the establishment of durable, mechanistic long-term biodiversity monitoring programs.

 

For the research community, the CRA’s value lies in promoting inclusive, equitable, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) sharing of data and know-how, including legacy datasets. It will also ensure international, cross-study standardization and deploy novel experimental and transdisciplinary approaches to understand the complex driving factors and consequences of biodiversity shifts.

 

BIODIVERSITY 3 aims to support society-oriented action research programs that change how political and economic decision-makers view and value biodiversity. This includes changing cultural, agricultural, and industrial practices, supporting potential legislative change, and integrating citizen science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into research and education.

 

The initiative directly addresses the Belmont Challenge by enabling transdisciplinary research that generates essential knowledge for understanding, mitigating, and adapting to global environmental change. Furthermore, the action is explicitly designed to contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals 13, 14, and 15, while aligning directly with the implementation of multiple targets within the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

 

Please fill out the Biodiversity 3 Interest Form here if you would like to receive more information on this call.

Disclosure: This description reflects the preliminary scope of the proposed Arctic 3 CRA currently under development. The thematic focus and final call text will be co-designed through global scoping activities with academic and societal partners, including Indigenous Peoples and knowledge holders, research institutions, policymakers, and funding organizations.  The final call may differ from the original proposed thematics in line with this consultation process.