Overcoming challenges for engagement with biodiversity monitoring
Tom Breeze
Although engaging with biodiversity monitoring has never been easier, there are still serious technical and cultural challenges that limit participation in many countries. In this workshop, we invite students to bring their own cultural and personal experiences to discuss some of these challenges and what we as researchers should be doing to engage people with biodiversity research and monitoring technologies and identify opportunities for co-development and learning.
Using long-term monitoring data to research biodiversity responses to environmental change
Laura Bosco
Across many European countries, long-term species monitoring programs—especially for birds—have been running for decades. These programs collect valuable data on species counts, distributions, morphology, phenology, and demography. In this workshop, we will discuss why such long-term datasets are essential for biodiversity research and how they help address key questions about ongoing global change.
Beyond the Paper: An Interactive Workshop on Science Communication for Early-Career Researchers
Neda Modova, Pensoft Publishers
In today’s evolving research landscape, the ability to communicate science clearly, creatively, and effectively is an essential skill for early-career researchers. This interactive workshop is designed to equip participants with practical tools and strategies to communicate their work to diverse audiences - including other researchers, policymakers, industry representatives, journalists, and the general public. Through a collaborative discussion and real-world examples, participants will explore key principles of storytelling, message framing, and audience adaptation. The workshop will also provide guidance on communicating through different formats - from policy briefs and media interviews to social media and visual content. Facilitated by experienced science communication professionals, this session offers a supportive space to practice, reflect, and build confidence in public engagement. The main aim of the workshop is to provide insights to ECRs on how to translate complex research into accessible, compelling messages that resonate to a variety of target groups.
The Carpathian Convention and Sustainable Development: Interdisciplinary Systems Approaches to Explore Connections
Tamara Mitrofanenko (Workshop ProBioTIC-A)
The workshop introduces the framework of the Carpathian Convention, including its implementation mechanisms, research priorities and action strategies. Participants will then use creative methods to identify intersections between local and regional biodiversity promotion and broader sustainable development challenges.
Problem or Solution? The Impacts of Consumption and Production on Biodiversity
Agnieszka Wypych, Magdalena Kubal-Czerwinska (Workshop ProBioTIC-B)
The workshop builds on workshop A and takes a deeper look at the connections between consumption and production systems and local and regional biodiversity promotion. A specific focus will be on the impacts of consumption and production on biodiversity. But the workshop will also explore how consumers and producers view and frame biodiversity promotion as a cause, solution, and problem, and develop ideas on how consumers and producers can become part of the solution to biodiversity challenges, rather than part of the problem.
Promoting Biodiversity through Education for Sustainable Development and Transdisciplinary Learning Interventions
Senan Gardiner (Workshop ProBioTIC-C)
The workshop builds on workshops A and B by focussing on the learning processes that are required to shift mindsets and practices of stakeholders and develop feasible solutions to pressing biodiversity challenges in the Carpathian region. Specifically, participants will learn about transdisciplinary research and learning methods that have the potential to engage stakeholders in knowledge co-production and experimentation processes to instill real-world changes. As an outcome of the workshop, participants will have developed first idea sketches of transdisciplinary learning interventions that bridge the siloes between academic research and real-world action.