Biodiversity is enormously diverse, unevenly observed, and constantly in motion across space and time. This makes it far harder to monitor than many other parts of the environment. As a result, managing biodiversity often depends on information that is incomplete, delayed or unevenly distributed. At the very moment when rapid change makes timely knowledge more valuable, the systems for collecting, identifying, publishing, and using biodiversity data often struggle to keep pace.

To address this, six research projects – B-Cubed, BMD, OneSTOP, MAMBO, GUARDEN, and AURORA – co-wrote a policy brief that explores the causes of this persistent biodiversity data lag and identifies ways to reduce it. According to them, the problem begins in the field. Most biodiversity recording relies on volunteers and local teams, which, although invaluable, results in uneven and untimely data, often missing some metadata information. Even professional monitoring programmes still struggle with limited staff, outdated software, or incompatible standards, which slows down the flow of data even more. Additionally, a lot of already available data cannot be accessed or is hardly discoverable because it has not been openly published yet or widely distributed. This results in a bunch of small delays that lead to a bigger lag in the spread of information.

Although biodiversity data has been rapidly expanding in volume, both traditional and novel methods of biodiversity monitoring (e.g. camera traps, eDNA sampling) struggle with the same old setbacks of incompleteness and long waiting. That’s why, rather than focusing only on data collection, policies should consider other cultural, infrastructural and institutional factors that stunt the provision of up-to-date and actionable open-access observations.

“The lag from field to information is not a single technical problem but a systemic one, stretching from how data are gathered to how they are valued. As biodiversity change accelerates, the ability to see the present, not just the past, becomes essential for sound policy and effective management.”

The recommendations provided by the EU projects to address this issue include:

• Reducing institutional bottlenecks: support data pipelines that move smoothly from field collection to open publication, with shared standards and automation where possible;

• Rethinking incentives: reward data publication and timely sharing as legitimate scientific outputs;

• Strengthening identification capacity: invest in AI-assisted identification, reference collections, and expert networks to accelerate taxonomic workflows;

• Encouraging near-real-time data use: develop platforms that deliver provisional but usable data for decision-making, with clear metadata on taxonomic uncertainty.

• Embedding feedback loops: ensure that once information is used, results and corrections flow back to improve data quality over time.

Read the full policy brief to learn what each project’s role is in addressing the data lag.

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B3 - ID No 101059592, BMD - ID No 101181294, OneSTOP - ID No 101180559, MAMBO - ID No 101060639, GUARDEN - ID No 101060693 receive funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme. The AURORA project is funded by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the EU nor the EC can be held responsible for them.