As governments meet in Yerevan, Armenia, for the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) to assess progress towards the 2030 global biodiversity targets, a new EU project argues that environmental challenges are becoming knowledge challenges. Around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction worldwide, according to the 2019 global assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Protecting them depends on knowing which species exist, where they live, and how they are changing.

TETTRIX, a four-year Horizon Europe project, coordinated by the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), aims to build a more connected, integrated and future-ready European taxonomic ecosystem, which will generate a robust, reliable, and readily accessible data-based fabric for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience, linking together science, policy and society. The project brings together 17 partners and two affiliated entities from 12 European countries. Just weeks after its Kick-off meeting in Brussels on 7–9 October 2026, the project will present its plans at COP17.

On 27 October, CETAF will host the session “Taxonomy in Action: From TETTRIs to TETTRIX for GBF Delivery” at the Science4Biodiversity booth in the conference’s Blue Zone, where negotiations on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework take place. Then, on 29 October from 16:30 to 17:45 (AMT) at the IUCN Pavilion, also positioned in the Blue Zone, a joint open session with other biodiversity initiatives, partnering in TETTRIX, such as Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Senckenberg Nature Research on the topic of “Natural Science Collections: ensuring data quality” will take place.

“Taxonomy is not an isolated scientific discipline but an essential infrastructure for biodiversity understanding, and scientific collections are at its center. We cannot protect what we cannot identify, understand, and monitor,” says Ana Casino, TETTRIX coordinator and CETAF Executive Director.

Taxonomy, the science of discovering, naming, identifying and classifying species, provides the foundation for understanding and monitoring biodiversity, informing policy and guiding conservation action. Every biodiversity record, monitoring scheme, and conservation decision depends on getting species identities right.

Currently, Europe holds an extraordinary biodiversity knowledge asset: natural history collections, taxonomic experts, research infrastructures, digital repositories and centuries of historical records. Despite this wealth of resources, biodiversity information remains fragmented and disconnected. Additionally, new databases, platforms and tools keep appearing, but they often use differing terminology and identifiers, and do not communicate with each other as efficiently to be able to accurately inform policy. In short, the taxonomic ecosystem is expanding faster than the biodiversity field can catch on.

At the same time, technology is further transforming how taxonomy is practised. Next-generation tools like DNA barcoding, genomics, automated imaging, and artificial intelligence now allow species to be detected and identified faster than ever. However, data cannot always tell us the whole story – expertise is what makes the data claims trustworthy. Here lies a hidden bottleneck, though: Europe’s taxonomic workforce is aging, specialist knowledge is being lost, and short-term project funding makes it even harder to attract new generations to the field.

TETTRIX aims to move European taxonomy from individual advances and fragmented resources towards an integrated ecosystem. Building on the achievements of its predecessor, TETTRIs, the project is built around four main goals:

• Integrate: Connect taxonomic data, tools, services, infrastructures and expertise through one coherent, accessible, open and FAIR hub.

• Transform: Turn species level information into actionable knowledge for biodiversity, climate and health.

• Upskill: Equip current and future taxonomists with training, digital skills and new career pathways.

• Demonstrate: Test and validate innovative tools, workflows and capacity building initiatives through cascade-funded projects.

TETTRIX will also develop innovative tools and services, including AI-based models, to advance species identification and strengthen the connection between taxonomic knowledge and policy-making. Through initiatives such as the European Taxonomic Hub, the TETTRIX Academy and a €2.4 million cascade-funding programme, the project aims to make taxonomic knowledge more accessible, interoperable and actionable, supporting biodiversity monitoring, nature restoration and evidence-based decision-making.

“Taxonomic knowledge is the connective element between biodiversity evidence and biodiversity action and a modern taxonomic system needs people, skills, infrastructures, tools and sustainable career pathways,” adds Casino.

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TETTRIX: TETTRIs neXt level for the taxonomy of tomorrow (TETTRIX) receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement 101286598). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union and the European Research Executive Agency (REA). The EU and REA cannot be held responsible for them.