The aim of the project is to organize a conference “The sustainable transition to a low carbon, climate-resilient circular economy: Creating the knowledge base, CE2019” in cooperation with the Finnish government. The CE2019 conference will be part of The Sustainable Days 30.9.-1.10.2019, Presidency Event Finland that will be organized partly jointly and partly in parallel with two conferences that are: Sustainable and smart manufacture (MF) and Sustainable innovation (SI). The event is planned as a flagship event during the Presidency of the Finland of the Council of the European Union on 30 September to 1 October 2019. The opening sessions on the first day of the two-day The Sustainable Days 30.9.-1.10.2019 will be organised jointly by the three separate conferences, while the second day programs are conference-specific, taking place in parallel and in the same venue. The second day will end to a joint adjourn, that summarises and concludes the main findings and messages of the opening session and the three conferences, as well as draft key messages and recommendations for future actions on sustainable transitioning towards low carbon, climate-resilient circular economy in the European Union. Organising the three conferences jointly and in parallel is expected to bring several benefits, in particular as regards the visibility, spreading the information and invitations, management of the events, as well as the impact, networking, and sharing of knowledge and resulting in common learning. The CE 2019 conference will be addressing the state-of the art of science in circular economy. The aim is the identification of policy options and priorities via review and assessment of developments, and sharing of information and comparison of points of views; and efficient networking of various stakeholders and support to their activities, e.g. natural scientists, social scientists, businesses, investors, local authorities, environmental organisations, museums and schools.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy (BDS) requires expanding the spatial coverage of marine protected areas to 30%, with 10% strict protection. Achieving the current 14-17% coverage has taken the Baltic Sea region 30 years, and strict protection remains almost non-existent. To meet the BDS target the countries will have to double the coverage in just 8 years. To fully capitalize on the added value of increased coverage, designation, management and measures, including restoration, need to be done in a strategic, ecologically relevant way focusing on areas and measures which enhance the existing network and optimise the possibility to secure positive biodiversity outcomes. There are however substantial challenges facing the region when it comes to leveraging the full potential of upcoming protection and restoration efforts and ultimately, positive biodiversity outcomes, especially in such a tight timeframe. To ensure that the upcoming efforts are both effective and efficient, this transboundary, network level, biogeographical region scale project will: - develop infrastructure for, and ensure long term access to, an unparalleled data driven, ecoregion scale, evidence base to support strategic planning, measures and management; - develop a blue print for, and establish, a data driven, regionally agreed protection framework to improve governance and transboundary cooperation, including politically agreed shared conservation and restoration objectives, targets etc to reach the desired state; - identify the current baseline of protection efforts across the entire sea basin. - cross-reference the desired state with the current baseline to identify gaps in protection and restoration efforts; - provide concrete and replicable support to ensure capacity for the Baltic Sea MS to strategically fill the gaps, harmonise, and achieve the full potential of the protection and restoration efforts.

The overall objective of the proposed Cofund action “ForestValue - Innovating the forest-based bioeconomy” is to promote increased innovation and competitiveness of the forest-based sector in Europe and support its transformation from a resource-intensive to a knowledge-intensive, productive, resource-efficient and resilient sector. Sustainability and modernisation of forestry systems and downstream value chains including innovative business concepts and production technologies will be needed to develop the forestry sector and the European bioeconomy, of which forestry accounts for a large share. The aim of ForestValue is to comprise the joint implementation of a trans-national call for proposals for research, development and innovation in the forest-based sector with a clear financial commitment from the participating national (or regional) research programmes and the EU. The topics of the planned ForestValue joint call will contribute to transforming the global economy from a dependence on fossil and non-renewable raw materials to a sustainable “bio-based economy”. The primary purpose is to allow the partners in the consortium to successfully implement and fund a co-funded joint call in the field of forestry and the wood sector. ForestValue builds on the success of three forest-based ERA-NETs: WoodWisdom-Net (running since 2004, the present phase running under the FP7 ERA-NET Plus Scheme 2012-2017), SUMFOREST (Tackling the challenges in sustainable and multifunctional forestry through enhanced research coordination for policy decisions, 2014-2017) and FORESTERRA (Enhancing forest research in the Mediterranean through improved coordination and integration, 2012-2015). The consortium consists of 31 partners representing different programmes in the bioeconomy funding sector, coming from different regions and countries inside/outside Europe.

Being one of the main actions of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) will coordinate research programmes between EU and its Member States and Associated Countries, mobilising environmental authorities as key partners for implementing biodiversity research and innovation, along with ministries of research, funding organisations, and environmental protection agencies (75 organisations from 37 countries). Biodiversa+ has five overarching objectives: (1) improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe (status and trends); (2) generate actionable knowledge to tackle the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss; (3) expand and improve the evidence base, and accelerate the development and wide deployment of NbS to meet societal challenges across Europe; (4) make the business case for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity; and (5) ensure efficient science-based support for biodiversity policy making in Europe. Biodiversa+ will meet these objectives by (i) setting up a pan-European network of harmonized monitoring schemes, building on existing national/regional monitoring schemes, creating capacity for setting up new schemes, and feeding into the EC Knowledge Center for Biodiversity; (ii) coordinating research programmes between the EU and its Member States and associated countries, thereby ensuring the long-term pan-European research agenda is co-created and implemented; (iii) contributing science-based methodologies to account for and possibly value ecosystem services and the natural capital, and to assess the dependency and impact of businesses on biodiversity and (iv) better linking of R&I programmes to the policy arena, providing greater input to policy making and improving the assessment of policy efficiency. Doing so, Biodiversa+ will help ensure that, by 2030, nature in Europe is back on a path of recovery, and by 2050 people are living in harmony with Nature.