The new Horizon Europe project THRIVE will officially begin on 1 September 2026, with the aim of expanding the role of citizen science in biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring across Europe.
Coordinated by the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), the 36-month project will harmonise citizen science tools, data flows and collaboration, helping to integrate citizen-generated data into official biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring schemes and policy processes.
“By harmonising tools, data flows and collaboration, THRIVE will support the integration of citizen science data into official biodiversity monitoring and policy processes,” says Marko Lovrić, Advocacy and Engagement Officer at CETAF.
THRIVE responds to the Horizon Europe call Strengthening the capacity of citizen science in biodiversity observation and has a budget of approximately €4 million. By building capacity, engaging diverse communities and embedding citizen science data in policy and governance, the project will move beyond fragmented actions towards a coordinated, scalable and policy-relevant European approach.
CETAF Contribution
CETAF will contribute to six work packages and lead the project’s stakeholder mapping task. This work will map Europe’s biodiversity monitoring landscape and foster closer links between monitoring actors, taxonomic communities and citizen science initiatives.
Together with the other task contributors, CETAF will identify and classify actors across the biodiversity data value chain, including data providers, data users, enabling organisations, community hubs and grassroots initiatives representing THRIVE’s target groups.
“Through CETAF’s contribution to THRIVE, we will help bring together biodiversity monitoring actors, taxonomic communities and citizen science initiatives across Europe. Our stakeholder mapping work will provide a clearer picture of this ecosystem and support more coordinated and effective collaboration,” Lovrić adds.
CETAF will also contribute to several additional activities, including collaboration with relevant biodiversity initiatives, the development of a sustainability roadmap, the mapping of teaching and training resources, the co-creation of workflow templates for policy-relevant citizen science activities and the design of a web-based matchmaking tool for policy-aligned data.
The project’s kick-off meeting will take place on 29–30 September 2026 at the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) in Berlin, bringing together THRIVE partners from across Europe and marking the beginning of their collaborative work.