Networking to scale up living labs for nature restoration solutions and to address bottlenecks to implementation

Expected Outcome:

Proposals are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Living labs working on nature restoration^[1] are better connected, they are better involved in policy developments, and they benefit from existing knowledge and experience, leading to scale up of solutions for nature restoration and to address bottlenecks to implementation in particular through strengthened ownership including by local communities, private actors and public authorities;
• the cooperation between research, practice and policy on nature restoration is increased, with attention to practitioners involved in nature restoration (farmers, foresters, fishers and/or other businesses depending on ecosystem services) and rural/local communities and authorities as well as traditional and local knowledge holders;
• public authorities, land owners and/or managers, water related stakeholders, food and bioeconomy actors and practitioners have access to shared, validated deployment and governance frameworks that support the scale up of nature restoration actions as well as estimates for demand for certified environmental outcomes supporting restoration objectives (certified carbon farming credits^[2] and, once methodologies are available, nature credits).

Scope:

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 defines nature restoration objectives in line with target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) provides that Member States shall put in place effective and area-based restoration measures.

Support to nature restoration living labs has been granted under Horizon Europe and more living labs are expected to be settled, making coordination and transfer of implementation frameworks increasingly important. including to capture recurring implementation bottlenecks. The Soil Mission has gathered experience on living labs for soil restoration notably through the project SOILL^[3].

The Commission announced in the Bioeconomy Strategy the creation of a Buyers’ Club for carbon farming; its aim is to bring together potential buyers of carbon farming credits certified under the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation, for instance by facilitating alliances between land managers and potential financiers. The Commission has adopted a roadmap towards nature credits^[4].

Proposals should:

• organise a European network of living labs and lighthouses dedicated to nature restoration to ensure a cohesive development and the effective uptake of validated deployment frameworks. It should notably facilitate the development of common methodologies, standards, impact frameworks and capacity-building activities for living labs across Europe, ensuring strong involvement of national and regional living lab networks and fostering cross-border collaboration. It should ensure adequate coverage of EU Member States and Associated Countries so that as many as possible countries can benefit from the experience gained;
• ensure that living labs are adequately informed on the relevant legislation notably the NRR and about experience and knowledge on nature restoration including from the LIFE programme^[5] and Biodiversa+ Knowledge Hubs^[6];
• inform about nature restoration financing (existing or future) opportunities, including the Nature credits roadmap and the CRCF certification framework, and their implementation; promote where relevant existing CRCF and nature credits methods for agriculture, including organic agriculture, agroforestry, peatland restoration and rewetting, and/or afforestation with a view of testing them in the living labs;
• consolidate scientific results from the living labs and lighthouses in policy and implementation-focused outputs, fostering multi-level governance and supporting competent authorities in translating restoration challenges into operational priorities; encourage the development of shared spatial frameworks and optimisation tools that enable transferability of restoration solutions across regions;
• based on living lab and lighthouses activities, advocate ecosystem restoration and promote knowledge sharing and cultural exchanges on biodiversity as shared legacy with a view to strengthen legitimacy, to foster intergenerational communication and to counter misinformation;
• develop a mapping of current and emerging living labs and lighthouses dedicated to nature restoration and make it available;
• build on existing knowledge and on the experience of successful living labs and lighthouses to provide practical recommendations and transferable implementation models to new ones dedicated to nature restoration; facilitate alliances between actors of the living labs and coalitions of buyers of certified carbon farming credits with biodiversity benefits (“Buyers’ Clubs”), with a view to future replication for nature credits.

The network should integrate coordinators of living labs projects funded under topic HORIZON-NATURE-2027-02-02: Living labs for co-creating solutions for the restoration of ecosystems addressing implementation bottlenecks and improving resilience to risks of this call. It should also be open to living labs funded under Cluster 6 topics^[7] or under other initiatives, in particular under the Mission ‘Soil Deal for Europe’, under the Agroecology partnership, under the Mission 'Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030^[8] and under national or regional programmes, provided ecosystem restoration is their main objective. Balance in the involvement of Member States and Associated Countries and gender balance should be ensured in the network.

Proposals must apply the multi-actor approach and ensure adequate involvement of all relevant stakeholders.

The network should involve relevant stakeholders, such as:

• land-owners and managers, farmers, foresters; freshwater and seawater related sectors, for their concrete experience in living labs;
• competent authorities for nature restoration; in particular rural/local communities, private actors and public authorities - including water management authorities - to help to better identify concrete implementation needs and evidence gaps;
• local residents, environmental NGOs, youth organisations to represent civil society’s views;
• researchers to provide scientific coordinated guidance to the living labs;
• financing institutions; coalitions of buyers of certified carbon farming credits with biodiversity benefits (“Buyers’ Clubs”), to facilitate alliances with actors of the living labs and with a view to support them to test and possibly replicate concepts for nature credits.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines including economics, finance, cultural and communication science, and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

In order to increase synergies and the impact of the project, the selected proposal should ensure close cooperation with the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD)^[9] and its Science Service, including participating in answering science to policy requests.

[1] Living labs supported under the Destination ‘Biodiversity and ecosystem services’ in the 2025, 2026 and 2027 calls and living labs under the Soil Mission having a strong focus on soil biodiversity.

[2] The Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Regulation (2024/3012) entered into force in December 2024 and the certification methodologies for carbon farming are expected to enter into force in Q3 2026.

[3] SOILL

[4] ENV - EU releases its roadmap towards nature credits.

[5] LIFE Programme - Tackling key challenges to upscaling nature restoration in the EU

[6] BiodivRestore Knowledge Hub – Biodiversa +

[7] Notably HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-01-two-stage: Living labs co-creating innovative solutions for forests and freshwater ecosystems restoration; HORIZON-CL6-2026-01-BIODIV-01-two-stage: Living labs for co-creating solutions for the restoration of ecosystems; HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-06: Living labs driving transformative change via knowledge integration and inclusive governance and HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-04: Living Labs for the eradication and/or management of invasive alien species.

[8] Topic HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-07 (Mission Lighthouses coordination and support activities).

[9] https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/biodiversity-knowledge-centre_en

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