New EU project TETTRIX brings Europe’s species expertise to UN biodiversity talks

Weeks after its launch, a new EU-funded project called TETTRIX will present its plan for an integrated European taxonomic system at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia, where governments are assessing progress towards the 2030 global biodiversity targets. The project argues that environmental challenges are increasingly 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), and protecting them depends on knowing which species exist, where they live, and how they are changing.

TETTRIX is a four-year Horizon Europe project coordinated by the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF). Its stated aim is to build a more connected, integrated and future-ready European taxonomic ecosystem that generates a robust, reliable and readily accessible data-based fabric for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience, linking science, policy and society. The consortium 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.

The project has scheduled two public appearances at the conference. On 27 October, CETAF will host the session “Taxonomy in Action: From TETTRIs to TETTRIX for GBF Delivery” at the Science4Biodiversity booth in the 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 in the Blue Zone, a joint open session with other biodiversity initiatives partnering in TETTRIX, such as Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Senckenberg Nature Research, will address the topic “Natural Science Collections: ensuring data quality”.

“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. “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,” she adds.

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. Europe holds an extraordinary biodiversity knowledge asset in this respect: 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. New databases, platforms and tools keep appearing, but they often use differing terminology and identifiers and do not communicate with each other efficiently enough to accurately inform policy. In short, as the project puts it, the taxonomic ecosystem is expanding faster than the biodiversity field can catch on.

Technology is simultaneously transforming how taxonomy is practised. Next-generation tools such as DNA barcoding, genomics, automated imaging and artificial intelligence now allow species to be detected and identified faster than ever. However, data cannot always tell the whole story: expertise is what makes data claims trustworthy. Here lies a hidden bottleneck, the project warns, because Europe’s taxonomic workforce is aging, specialist knowledge is being lost, and short-term project funding makes it 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: to integrate taxonomic data, tools, services, infrastructures and expertise through one coherent, accessible, open and FAIR hub; to transform species-level information into actionable knowledge for biodiversity, climate and health; to upskill current and future taxonomists with training, digital skills and new career pathways; and to demonstrate and validate innovative tools, workflows and capacity-building initiatives through cascade-funded projects.

The project 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, TETTRIX aims to make taxonomic knowledge more accessible, interoperable and actionable, supporting biodiversity monitoring, nature restoration and evidence-based decision-making. As a planned four-year programme, its outcomes will depend on delivery over the coming years, but its central message to delegates in Yerevan is already clear: identifying species is the first step towards protecting them.

Subject of Research: A new EU project to integrate European taxonomic knowledge and infrastructure for biodiversity conservation

Article Title: 'We cannot protect what we cannot identify': New EU project takes Europe’s species knowledge to the UN Biodiversity Conference

Article References: 'We cannot protect what we cannot identify': New EU project takes Europe’s species knowledge to the UN Biodiversity Conference. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: TETTRIX, taxonomy, biodiversity, CBD COP17, Horizon Europe, CETAF, natural history collections, species identification, DNA barcoding, artificial intelligence, conservation, Yerevan