This month, a new Horizon Europe project we’ve been part of building kicks off: THRIVE, a pan-European effort to bring citizen science into the heart of biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring. The idea is straightforward: millions of biodiversity observations are already being collected by citizens across Europe, but the data, tools and communities behind them remain fragmented and rarely reach the people making biodiversity policy. THRIVE sets out to change that.

The project brings together 16 partners from 10 countries, including natural history museums, taxonomic research infrastructures, and biodiversity data platforms.

Stickydot leads the work package building the THRIVE network itself: mapping who’s already active in citizen science for biodiversity across Europe, and working to bring in the people and communities often left out, from farmers and foresters to young people and other underrepresented groups. We’re also contributing to THRIVE’s outreach, helping the project show up at key European biodiversity events over the coming years.