In October 2025, BioAgora convened its first Science-Policy Interface Dialogue Workshop in the Belgian city of Ghent. Over the course of a two-day agenda, researchers, governance actors and stakeholders on the ground discussed the realities surrounding the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation, specifically in relation to freshwater ecosystems.
During the proceedings, three participants agreed to provide live testimonies on their experiences during the workshop and their views surrounding the topics discussed therein. Below are the highlights from these video interviews (which have now been made public via BioAgora's YouTube profile).
- Marie Vandewalle (UFZ; co-coordinator of BioAgora) observed that the workshop proved itself a testament to the strong motivation of the freshwater stakeholder community. In other words, it was apparent that attendees displayed a keenness to effect transformative change for this type of ecosystem across Europe via actionable knowledge. She also stressed that such network-building occasions are a key priority on the path to developing a Science Service for Biodiversity (SSBD) at the EU level, the core output of the BioAgora project. Building off on this, she encouraged experts to join the mechanism's Knowledge Exchange Networks as a means to contribute to a new standard of evidence-based decision-making for biodiversity.
- Irene Duque (Wetlands International) pointed to the importance of events stimulating research-policy dialogues like the workshop, especially in light of the shifting political priorities in the EU that place less emphasis on the environment. She also expressed optimism regarding the future of the SSBD, sharing that previous collaborations between her team and BioAgora have already revealed the framework's promise for cross-checking policy data against scientific insights.
- Daniel Hering (University of Duisburg-Essen; keynote speaker of the workshop) saw the event as an important opportunity to reaffirm the wider community's commitment to restoration initiatives at a time when their long-term continuation may be in doubt. To him, the SSBD should have an important role in this context as it can consolidate the existing disconnected ecosystem of diverse biodiversity knowledge frameworks.
The full interviews can be accessed below. A full recap of the Ghent workshop is available on this page.