Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+) Project – Abridged Grant Proposal
The Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+) Project builds on a pan-European collaboration to scale up the production and uptake of genomic evidence for taxonomy, monitoring, and policy. It widens participation, standardises methods, and prepares a distributed European system for biodiversity genomics that links molecules to ecosystems. The BGE+ consortium unites the International Barcode of Life in Europe (iBOL Europe, barcoding), the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA, reference genomes) and the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF, taxonomic research and natural history collections) to align end-to-end workflows from field sampling to application. This publication is an abridged version of the successful grant proposal developed jointly by iBOL Europe, ERGA, and CETAF in response to the Horizon Europe call HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-03. BGE+ has four overarching objectives: (1) broaden participation and capacity; (2) make distributed genomic data production interoperable and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) by design; (3) translate evidence into practice through co-designed use-case roadmaps; and (4) define the service portfolio and assess the financial and technical feasibility of a future European research infrastructure in biodiversity genomics. Through targeted cascade grants (Financial Support to Third Parties) and hands-on training, BGE+ enlarges community capacity while converging on shared protocols and standard practices, improving data interoperability and consolidating community efforts. Building on previous work, BGE+ carries forward the communities’ long-term vision: turning fragmented efforts into a coherent, scalable system that delivers reliable genomic evidence for taxonomy and policy.
Authors
- José Melo‐Ferreira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4473-1908)
- Claúdio Ciofi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8537-8659)
- Ioannis Kavakiotis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8394-3762)
- Styliani Minoudi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2991-8483)
- Spiros Papakostas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5563-0048)
- Alexandros Triantafyllidis
- Ana Casino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9869-6573)
- Michał Grabowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4551-3454)
- Stefaniya Kamenova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7241-0506)
- Elisavet Kaitetzidou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1931-5876)
- Konstantinos Gkagkavouzis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6967-1361)
- Glenn Dunshea (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8683-0181)
- Sharif Islam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8050-0299)
- Alessio Iannucci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7729-4412)
- Nick Juty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2036-8350)
- Emre Keskin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7279-313X)
- Wouter Addink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3090-1761)
- Nikoleta Karaiskou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0464-7154)
- Jose Alonso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7513-9507)
- Ian Barnes
- Olga Vinnere Pettersson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5597-1870)
- Madlen Stange (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4559-2535)
- Eva Alonso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-9723)
- João Pimenta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5489-8410)
- Mónica Bayés
- Camila Mazzoni
- Elena Buzan
- Kasia Fantoni
- Gabriela Dankova
- Lyubomir Penev
- Luísa Marins
- Sarah Bourlat
- Fergal Martin
- Dimitris Koureas
- Tyler Alioto
- Marta Gut
- Physilia Chua
- Diego De Panis
- Stian Soiland-Reyes
- Emily Hartop
- FILIPPOS ARAVANOPOULOS (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-2642)
- Joana Paupério
- Evgeny Zakharov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2310-7738)
- Ben Price
- Mara Lawniczak
- Harris Lewin
- Robert Waterhouse
- Carole Goble
- Peter Hollingsworth
- Matthew Clark
- Rutger Vos
- Leanne Haggerty
- Eli Chadwick
- Pedro Beja
- Ken Thompson
- Katharina Heil
- Torbjørn Ekrem
- Astrid Böhne
- Teresita Porter
- Sónia Ferreira
- Rita Monteiro
Institutions
- University of Primorska (SI)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH)
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NL)
- European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
- Swedish Veterinary Agency (SE)
- Natural History Museum (GB)
- Ankara University (TR)
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (GB)
- Universidade do Porto (PT)
- International Hellenic University (GR)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR)
- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BG)
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- University of Łódź (PL)
- Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (BE)
- Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (DE)
- Pensoft Publishers (Bulgaria) (BG)
- Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research (DE)
- College of Environmental Protection (SI)
- Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (ES)
- University of Turkish Aeronautical Association (TR)
- National Museum of Natural History (BG)
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (DE)
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change
- University of Florence (IT)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- University of Guelph (CA)
- Epigenomics (Germany) (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Research Ideas and Outcomes
- Published
- 2026-09-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.12.e214291
- Primary Topic
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- HORIZON EUROPE Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment