Together with climate change, biodiversity loss is the most pressing environmental crisis of our time. The "Translational Centre Biodiversity Conservation" bundles knowledge and makes it generally available. In collaboration with key Swiss stakeholders, the Centre identifies topics for knowledge exchange, translation, and synthesis, and communicates and distributes the resulting synthesis products.
Overview
The Translational Centre Biodiversity Conservation aims to bridge the gap between research and practice in biodiversity and nature conservation. The project will first evaluate the specific needs and requirements of experts working in conservation practice. It will identify topics that lack comprehensive synthesis, based on existing knowledge from research and practice. The breadth of topics will include aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity as well as conservation policy, management, and communication. The identified topics will then be discussed in working groups equally comprised of scientists and practitioners. The working groups will create synthesis documents and give recommendations to practice and policy. In the long term, the Centre aims to provide a platform for knowledge exchange between research and practice in biodiversity conservation in Switzerland. The idea of such a synthesis Centre is not new and we build on varied previous experiences. The centre plans to provide synthesis documents and recommendations for approximately six to ten relevant topics in the next three years.
The Centre uses a participatory and transdisciplinary approach throughout the project duration. The first working groups will start their work in early 2024. A task force composed of scientists and conservation experts from practice supervises and supports the project. The project is funded by the ETH Board and is a collaboration of different ETH domain institutions.
