Projects
eDNA Expeditions 2026-2028
12 June 2025 → 31 December 2028
UNESCO’s Environmental DNA (eDNA) Expeditions is a global citizen science initiative aimed at advancing knowledge of marine biodiversity and the impacts of climate change on the distribution patterns of marine life across UNESCO World Heritage marine sites.
Project contact:
Saara Suominen
s.suominen@unesco.org
The eDNA Expeditions project is funded by the Minderoo Foundation and supported by Wilderlab.
DTO-BioFlow
1 September 2023 → 1 February 2027
The core mission of the DTO-BioFlow Project is to unlock "sleeping" biodiversity data enabling the sustained flow of these and new data via primary integrators and EMODnet into the EU Digital Twin Ocean. It will create a digital replica of marine biological processes transforming new and existing data flows into evidence-based knowledge.
Project contact:
Saara Suominen
s.suominen@unesco.org
The DTO-BioFlow project is funded by the European Union, Grant Agreement #101112823.
BioEcoOcean
1 February 2024 → 31 January 2027
BioEcoOcean (2024-2027) is a Horizon Europe project with the goal of creating a Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science (BIOS). This tool will revolutionize biological and ecosystem ocean observation, enhancing understanding and sustainable ocean management. BIOS will guide every stage of ocean observation, from planning and data collection to policy applications. The project also advances state-of-the-art research on Biology and Ecosystems Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), improving global data monitoring, management, and forecasting capabilities. BioEcoOcean aims to support local, European, and global scales in achieving better-informed decisions for sustainable ocean development.
Project contact:
Elizabeth Lawrence
e.lawrence@unesco.org
The BioEcoOcean project is funded by the European Union, Grant Agreement #101136748.
MARCO-BOLO
1 December 2022 → 30 November 2026
Coastal and marine areas face intense pressures from overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and development, yet many monitoring programmes remain fragmented and short-term. MARCO-BOLO aims to transform marine biodiversity monitoring by connecting existing initiatives, improving methods, and innovating technologies. The project delivers practical tools that allow politicians and companies to assess biodiversity health, predict changes, and proactively manage environments.
Project contact:
Lisa Benedetti
l.benedetti@unesco.org
The MARCO-BOLO project is funded by the European Union, Grant Agreement #101082021. UK participants are supported by the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee under Grant Agreements #10068180, #10063994, and #10048178.
eDNAqua-Plan
1 September 2023 → 26 August 2026
The eDNAqua-Plan project aims to advance the integration of eDNA-based aquatic biodiversity monitoring into policy by reviewing the current landscape of reference libraries, dataset repositories and metadata standards. By identifying gaps, it will provide a blueprint for an improved reference database- and eDNA landscape that is reliable (e.g. verifiable taxonomies and reporting on data collection and processing mehtods), accessible, and interoperable across markers, taxa and data types. The result will be a plan for an interlinked digital ecosystem, that can be easily adopted by new practitioners, and that will make eDNA biodiversity monitoring more transparent and reproducible across Europe.
Project contact:
Emilie Boulanger
e.boulanger@unesco.org
The eDNAqua-Plan project is funded by the European Union, Grant Agreement #101112800.
MPA Europe
1 January 2023 → 30 April 2026
The EU‑funded MPA Europe project (2023–2026) systematically identifies optimal Marine Protected Areas across European seas, including the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black Sea. Using a holistic, data-driven approach combining species and ecosystem range mapping, blue carbon stocks, ecosystem classification, and climate‑connectivity analyses, it prioritizes the top 10% and 30% areas for biodiversity and carbon protection. Results will be shared via a transparent online atlas and integrated into Marine Spatial Planning tools. Led by Nord University and partners, MPA Europe supports stakeholders and policymakers with decision‑support tools to inform climate‑smart ocean conservation and reach 2030 protection targets
Project contact:
Silas Principe
s.principe@unesco.org
The MPA Europe project is funded by the European Union, Grant Agreement #101059988.
eDNA Expeditions
1 October 2021 → 1 October 2024
UNESCO’s Environmental DNA Expeditions was a global citizen science initiative that ran from September 2022 to July 2023 across 21 UNESCO World Heritage marine sites in 19 countries. The project engaged 250 citizen scientists, including children as young as 6 years old, who collected water samples to detect ocean biodiversity through eDNA analysis. Participants identified over 4,000 marine species, with all data made openly available through OBIS to advance knowledge of marine species distribution and their vulnerability to climate change.
Project contact:
Saara Suominen
s.suominen@unesco.org
The eDNA Expeditions project is funded by the Government of Flanders (Kingdom of Belgium).
PacMAN
1 January 2020 → 31 December 2023
PacMAN is a UNESCO-IOC initiative that created a molecular monitoring framework to detect marine invasive species in Pacific Island States using eDNA and qPCR techniques. The project built local scientific capacity while developing an interactive decision-support dashboard that translates genetic data into actionable insights for environmental managers. By integrating OBIS biodiversity data with the World Register of Introduced Marine Species, the framework enables rapid identification of invasive threats and supports policy decisions.
Project contact:
Saara Suominen
s.suominen@unesco.org
PacMAN is a 3-year (2020-2023) project funded by the Flanders Government, through the Flanders UNESCO Trust Fund (FUST) for the support of UNESCO's activities in the field of Science, and co-funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.
