Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme. Under the H2020-MG-2020-SingleStage-INEA call, CPU became one of the partners that currently received a grant within a consortium of 39 partners from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Romania, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The BISON project (Biodiversity and Infrastructure Synergies and Opportunieties for European transport Networks) aims to tackle the integration of biodiversity with the development of infrastructure, including roads, railways, waterways, airports, ports, or energy transport networks. It started on January 1, 2021 for a period of 30 months.

In Europe, the need to make infrastructure more sustainable for biodiversity while ensuring their reliability and efficiency is urgent. Indeed, Europe needs to adapt its existing infrastructure to new climatic conditions (floods, droughts ...), as well as find innovative and sustainable solutions to reduce the impact of invasive species and address the decline of native species and ecosystem fragmentation. Simultaneously, the sharp rise in the development of new transport infrastructure, especially in Eastern Europe, must support economic development while paying particular attention to the local biodiversity, which is often endemic. Faced with these needs, for the first time the European Union funds a 3 million euros Coordination and Support Action project on the topic of transport and biodiversity issues. As part of the last calls under H2020, the BISON project is timely to set the ground and upscale research on these topics in the next European research framework programme 2021-2027 (HORIZON EUROPE).

Four teachers and one PhD student from our Faculty of Natural Sciences are involved in the project (professor Petrovič. – project leader, associate professor Mederly, Dr Tulis, Dr Ševčík and Mr Černecký). Experts from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Žilina (associate professor Ďurčanská) and The State Nature Conservancy of Slovak Republic (Dr. Ján Kadlečík) will also take part in the project. The amount of funds for CPU presents almost € 28,550.

 

Text: Mgr. Jana Nozdrovická, PhD. – Communication officer for BISON project