The end of January 2024 marked an important event for our project - the official OBSGESSION Kick-Off meeting in Tuusula, Finland. Over 20 individuals from the 11 partnering institutions, representing 7 countries, gathered in-person, while an additional 30 members joined virtually.  Together we enjoyed 3 days of productive discussions, engaging presentations and some good old-fashioned fun and got to know the colleagues we'll be working with over the course of the next 4 years.

Sessions were held on topics like evaluating the policy needs related to biodiversity monitoring, detecting biodiversity & ecosystem changes across Europe, assessing biodiversity products, and large-scale communication and dissemination.  We introduced the project case studies, how they will be approached and explored and how project impact will be delivered, quantified, and measured.

We thank our coordination team and organisers from SYKE for facilitating this experience, and we already look forward to the  next one!