eDNAqua-Plan is developing a concept for a future digital ecosystem for DNA-based biodiversity data that maximises its use & re-use.
During an interactive and collaborative workshop on the 17th of April 2026, eDNAqua-Plan presented their recommendations, to date, to stakeholders from the wider biomonitoring community, with the objective to gather feedback to inform the project’s final outputs.
Building on comprehensive landscape and gap analyses work carried out by the consortium over the last two years, project partners presented their key recommendations, as well as specific recommendations to European Directives (the Marine Strategy Framework Directive [MSFD] and the Water Framework Directive [WFD]). Use cases were provided in the form of a national roadmap for implementing eDNA biomonitoring (Finland), and an industry perspective (Spygen).
Feedback was collected during the workshop and the outputs will contribute to the development of eDNAqua-Plan’s Technical Blueprint, Sustainability Plan and Roadmap for Implementation.
You can find all the presentations and recordings below. If you are interested in providing feedback, please feel free to fill in this form.
A summary report of the workshop will be made available soon.
The workshop presentations can be downloaded and rewatched.
| Presentation | Recording | Speaker |
| Welcome and introduction | Oonagh McMeel, SSBE | |
| Introduction to eDNAqua-Plan | Watch it now | Nicolas Pade, EMBRC |
| Key recommendations from eDNAqua-Plan | Watch it now | Katrina Exter, VLIZ |
| A National Use Case: Roadmap for Implementing eDNA Monitoring in Finland | Watch it now | Veera Norros, SYKE |
| Practical recommendations for WFD and MSFD | Watch it now | Florian Leese, UDE Sofie Derycke, EV ILVO |
| An industry perspective | Watch it now | Alice Valentini, SPYGEN |
| Wrap-Up & Next Steps | Oonagh McMeel, SSBE |
Contact:
eDNAquaPlan@seascapebelgium.be
Useful resources:
- Our mapping of the current and proposed future landscape
- Our vision for a European eDNA Digital Ecosystem
- Recommendations for a federated system of taxonomically curated reference libraries
- Report of best practices for eDNA data repositories, including a model of metadata standards alignment
- Report on infrastructures/services, linking and compatibility for aquatic eDNA-based biodiversity monitoring
- Recommendations for implementing DNA-based methods into the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive
- Blueprint Workshop report