With European ecosystems under increasing pressure, understanding where and how restoration measures can deliver the greatest possible impact is becoming increasingly important. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation requires Member States to implement restoration measures across at least 20% of the continent’s land and sea areas by 2030, with the longer-term ambition of restoring all ecosystems by 2050. NatureRestoreR will bridge the gap between ecological science and restoration policy, providing the evidence and modelling capacity needed to develop and refine effective National Restoration Plans.
Funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Radboud University, the cornerstone project NatureRestoreR: guiding nature restoration through integrated ecological modelling, with grant number 101287178, has been officially launched on 1 September 2026. It will be implemented over the course of four years, concluding on 1 September 2030. NatureRestoreR aims to provide publicly available ecological modelling tools and guidelines that enable national and regional authorities to design restoration plans based on a scientifically sound understanding of how species, habitats and ecosystem services respond to restoration measures in different places and under evolving climate dynamics.
The project seeks to address a critical challenge in guiding ecosystem restoration efforts: there is no single approach to restoring nature. Species and habitats may respond differently to a given restoration measure depending on local environmental conditions, while climate change can affect the long-term outcomes of restoration. Authorities therefore need robust scientific evidence to understand how species and ecosystems are likely to respond to restoration under specific circumstances and where interventions can create synergies or trade-offs. NatureRestoreR will convene existing data, scientific knowledge and modelling approaches to develop an innovative suite of adaptive and easy-to-use ecological modelling tools. These tools will enable evidence-based prospective assessment of restoration measures by modelling their potential impacts on species’ habitats, the extent and condition of habitats protected under the EU Nature Directives and the provision of ecosystem services.
The modelling tools will be co-developed and tested through a co-creation process involving researchers and implementation partners, using information from the initial and final revised National Restoration Plan of five EU Member States: Austria, Italy, France, Estonia and the Netherlands. This collaborative approach will enable the project partners to assess how these plans contribute to the objective of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Nature Restoration Regulation. Reflecting on the project’s long-term vision, Aafke Schipper, a member of the coordination team at Radboud University, offered their personal perspective: “NatureRestoreR relies on a unique co-creation partnership between ecological researchers and national authorities responsible for or involved in the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation. Through this partnership, we ensure that NatureRestoreR meets the needs of decision-makers and practitioners implementing and monitoring the NRR”, explains Aafke Schipper.
NatureRestoreR’s transdisciplinary partnership brings together ecological modelling experts and national agencies with deep knowledge of the EU Nature Directives and National Restoration Plans, working together to strengthen the relation between ecological knowledge and the decisions shaping Europe’s landscape. Throughout the project, NatureRestoreR will engage with researchers, practitioners, policymakers and other stakeholders interested in advancing effective, evidence-informed ecosystem restoration across Europe. To stay up to date with the project’s latest news, activities and results, follow NatureRestoreR on LinkedIn.