Accepting the New Normal: EU Biodiversity Network Funds Research into Irreversible Ecosystems

On 9 September, the European biodiversity partnership Biodiversa+ opened a new research funding call named BiodivFuture. The initiative targets research into novel ecosystems—environments so thoroughly reshaped by human activity that they are unlikely ever to return to their historical state, regardless of human intervention. The call invites studies examining the biodiversity, socio-ecological impacts, and future trajectories of these permanently altered landscapes.

For decades, environmental policy has often focused on ecological restoration—trying to bring nature back to a historical baseline. This research initiative signals a practical turn toward reality. As climate change and development permanently alter habitats, understanding how these newly formed ecosystems actually function helps local authorities manage land, safeguard surviving wildlife, and adapt to environmental changes that cannot be undone.

Biodiversa+ sits in that pragmatic corner of European research funding where science meets institutional policy. In the lexicon of EU environmental planning, funding work on novel ecosystems is a subtle admission that nature does not always follow policy targets. Rather than pretending every habitat can be restored to a pre-industrial baseline, the funding machinery is opening the purse strings to study how to manage the altered world we actually inhabit.

Research consortia across Europe will now prepare and submit proposals under the BiodivFuture call. Successful applicants will receive co-funding to carry out multi-year studies, with the findings expected to feed back into future European environmental strategy and land-management practices.