© Riku Lumiaro
The Horizon Europe project OBSGESSION receives over 5 million euros funding and will commence from 2024. The OBSGESSION project, which advances monitoring of biodiversity change, is coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) and the funding for Syke’s part of the project is almost a million euros. Syke also received a total of 1.6 million euros of funding from the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe for five other projects in which Syke is a partner.
Starting in 2024, the Observation of Ecosystem Changes for Action (OBSGESSION) project is coordinated by Syke and will run for four years. The goal of the project is to monitor and predict biodiversity change and its direct and indirect drivers in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The project will make use of the latest satellite data, in particular data from future satellite missions based on imaging spectroscopy, to provide new insights into vegetation characteristics and ecosystem functioning, among other things.
“With this new project, we can develop the harmonisation of the biodiversity monitoring systems in Europe. We produce new forms of information on nature, which can be used for example in nature restoration and to achieve biodiversity conservation goals”, says the Finnish Environment Institute’s research professor Petteri Vihervaara, who coordinates the project.
The OBSGESSION project supports cooperation between the European Commission and the European Space Agency to develop remote sensing of biodiversity. The project involves 11 partner organisations and has a total budget of around 7.3 million euros, of which the EU contribution is 5.3 million euros.
Syke’s Research Director Eeva Primmer is excited about the new Horizon Europe projects. “We were successful in a broad range of instruments this round. For example, the instrument seeking widening of research across Europe, WIDERA which funds our project CASRI, will support foresight and programming of sustainability research”, she says. Primmer highlights the importance of EU projects in scaling environmental research from relatively small Finland to the European level: “The recent crises have turned our attention slightly inward, but research needs international comparison, collaboration, and co-learning. For example, the OBSGESSION project coordinated by Syke is embedded and advances international biodiversity monitoring development.”
Other projects receiving Horizon Europe funding (main coordinator in brackets):
- Aqua Research Infrastructure Services for the health and protection of our unique, oceans, seas and freshwater ecosystems, AQUARIUS (coordinator Marine Institute, IE, Ireland). Coordinator at Syke Jukka Seppälä
- REinforce Science-Policy interfaces in innovative ways to boost effectiveness and INterconnectedness of biodiversity and climate policies, RESPIN (coordinator Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Germany). Coordinator at Syke Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki
- Collaborative Action coordinating and enhancing systemic, actionable and transversal Sustainability Research and Innovation, CASRI (coordinator Umweltbundesamt, UBA, Germany). Coordinator at Syke Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki
- Land-Sea interface: Let’s observe together!, LandSeaLot (coordinator Stichting Deltares, Netherlands). Coordinator at Syke Sampsa Koponen
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Water Security for the Planet, Water4All (coordinator French National Research Agency ANR, France). Coordinator at Syke Jari Silander
More information
At Finnish Environment Institute:
- Research director Eeva Primmer, +358 29 525 1521
- OBSGESSION project, Research professor Petteri Vihervaara
- AQUARIUS project, Group manager Jukka Seppälä
- CASRI and RESPIN projects, Group manager, senior research scientist Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki
- LandSeaLot project, Development manager, senior research scientist, Sampsa Koponen
- Water4All project, Senior research scientist Jari Silander
Emails firstname.lastname@syke.fi