The Climate Action and Resource Efficiency Directorate of DG Research and Innovation organised on 29 February 2016 in Brussels a science – science interface workshop with an emphasis on biodiversity and ecosystem services related themes. The objective of the meeting was to identify synergies between EU funded research and networking projects and actions; foster collaboration on scientific and technical issues, as well as communication and science-policy strategies.

Projects funded under various funding schemes such as FP7, Horizon 2020, Biodiversa, LIFE+, and COST were invited to the meeting. Joachim Maes represented ESMERALDA at the meeting. 

The discussions were organised in working groups along five themes: • basic research • applied research • technological developments • prototypes • demonstration projects.

The working groups identified needs and areas for collaboration within and between these themes, discussed bottlenecks and barriers, and proposed possible solutions.Solutions to enhance collaboration between all the different projects include: • More flexibility in the funding schemes to respond better to emerging calls, • Separate funding mechanisms for post project meetings and for workshops  and • Open data and publishing.

The European Commission will make a report of the meeting available.