THRIVE’s overarching objective is to transform the fragmented citizen science (CS) landscape into a coherent, large-scale and durable network of actors with strong capacity to contribute to initiatives in biodiversity and ecosystem observation (BEO), thus supporting official biodiversity and ecosystems monitoring (BEM) schemes and EU environmental policies. By broadening participation through refined engagement strategies and learning pathways, harmonising tools and protocols, ensuring interoperable data flows and embedding CS into long-term policy frameworks, THRIVE will scale citizen participation and deliver robust, policy-relevant data across terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. THRIVE paves the way to securing CS as a cornerstone of Europe’s biodiversity and ecosystem resilience towards effective climate adaptation and mitigation.

CMCC role
The core CMCC activity is to build on the RENOVATE experience in the Latium Region (Italy) and scale the use of citizen observations for marine restoration monitoring to three additional marine restoration sites. Citizen observations may include corals, seagrasses and algae and the Practice Case is designed to demonstrate how citizen science can support monitoring of restoration progress while strengthening local engagement and community ownership.

Beyond the Practice Case, CMCC contributes to communication and nature-connectedness activities, capacity-building and training, engagement strategies for target and vulnerable groups, harmonisation of data and tools, FAIR data sharing, impact assessment and long-term sustainability planning.

Expected CMCC contribution to THRIVE outcomes:

• a documented and transferable marine citizen-science approach for restoration monitoring;
• a scaling roadmap for the marine habitat restoration Practice Case;
• demonstration of the approach at three additional marine restoration sites;
• testing of engagement, data-management and harmonisation methods in real marine restoration contexts;
• evidence and lessons learned supporting project-wide recommendations, policy briefs and sustainability roadmaps.
• contribution to long-term interoperability and FAIR use of citizen observations in biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring.

Activities
THRIVE focuses on six key activity areas:

• project coordination & management: administrative, financial and scientific oversight, quality assurance and ethics compliance;
• communication & outreach: awareness campaigns, social media, flagship events and nature-connectedness initiatives to engage diverse audiences;
• network building & stakeholder engagement: mapping and connecting citizens, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers across Europe;
• capacity building & training: developing training portfolios, train-the-trainer modules, and learning pathways for citizen science practitioners and educators;
• data harmonisation & policy integration: standardising tools, protocols, and metadata; creating policy recommendations and a match-making tool to link CS data with official monitoring;
• practice cases, impact assessment & sustainability: testing and scaling approaches in real-world cases, evaluating project impact, and delivering a long-term sustainability roadmap.

Expected results
Through its integrated approach across engagement, data and policy, THRIVE is expected to deliver the following results:

• Enhanced capacity for citizen engagement in biodiversity observation
• Better harmonised and coordinated citizen science initiatives
• Improved integration of citizen science into taxonomic networks and communities
• Better integration of citizen science initiatives into formal education
• Systematic biodiversity observation established across Europe

Partners
ECSA – Verein der Europäischen Bürgerwissenschaften – ECSA e.V. (Germany)
FONDAZIONE CMCC – Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Italy)
IBE – Fundación Ibercivis (Spain)
IIASA – Internationales Institut für Angewandte Systemanalyse (Austria)
MFN – Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung (Germany)
MNHN – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (France)
UCPH – Københavns Universitet (Denmark)
NORDECO – Nordisk Fond for Miljø og Udvikling (Denmark)
NUCLIO – Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia Associação (Portugal)
STICKYDOT SRL – Stickydot Srl (Belgium)
CETAF – Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (Belgium)
CSGP – Citizen Science Global Partnership (Austria)
OI – Stichting Observation International (Netherlands)
GBIF – Global Biodiversity Information Facility (Denmark)
UoH – University of Hertfordshire Higher Education Corporation (United Kingdom)