Bialystok University of Technology is a part of EUROPE-LAND! We will receive 373 thousand euros. From Horizon Europe

13 partners representing 12 countries! Bialystok University of Technology is part of a European consortium that has been formed to combat the effects of climate change.
The partners will work under the EUROPE-LAND (Towards Sustainable Land-use Strategies in the Context of Climate Change and Biodiversity Challenges in Europe) project, which has received funding from Horizon Europe in the amount of €6.3 million.
The Bialystok University of Technology budget is €373,000.

The EUROPE-LAND project will run for 48 months. The research team of Bialystok University of Technology is composed of employees of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences of Bialystok University of Technology and the Faculty of Engineering Management of Bialystok University of Technology, and the project coordinators are Prof. Piotr Banaszuk and Prof. Joanna Ejdys.

The key project team on behalf of the university consists of:

• Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences: Prof. Piotr Banaszuk, DSc, PhD, Andrzej K. Kamocki, PhD, Eng, Aleksander Kołos, DSc, PhD, Robert Czubaszek, PhD, Eng and Agnieszka Wysocka-Czubaszek, PhD, Eng.
• Faculty of Engineering Management: Prof. Joanna Ejdys, DSc, PhD, Eng, Assoc. Prof. Katarzyna Halicka, DSc, PhD, Eng, Anna Kononiuk, PhD, Joanna Godlewska, PhD, Danuta Szpilko, PhD, and Łukasz Nazarko, PhD.

The project consortium is made up of 13 partners representing 12 countries, and includes:

1. HAMBURG UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES (Germany)
2. ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI (Greece)
3. ESTONIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES (Estonia)
4. UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN (Denmark)
5. UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA (Portugal)
6. BIALYSTOK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (Poland)
7. UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA (Italy)
8. ROMANIAN ACADEMY (Romania)
9. UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA (Latvia)
10. SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE IN NITRA (Slovakia)
11. UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND LIFE SCIENCES, VIENNA (Austria)
12. LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUER AGRARENTWICKLUNG IN TRANSFORMATIONSOEKONOMIEN (Germany)
13. CHARLES UNIVERSITY PRAGUE (Czech Republic)

The project leader is Hamburg University of Applied Sciences from Germany.

– Considering the need to implement sustainable land use strategies, the EUROPE-LAND project focuses on the integration of natural and social sciences to identify, develop, test and implement integrated tools to improve land use decision-making, and build awareness and stakeholder engagement in countering the effects of climate change and overcoming the challenges of declining biodiversity in Europe. – points out Prof. Joanna Ejdys.

– The EUROPE-LAND project includes seven work packages in which researchers from 12 countries are expected to gather land use patterns in Europe, explore the awareness of key stakeholders on climate change and biodiversity, collect data on land cover and land use, and propose a holistic and systemic approach to agricultural land use in Europe. – explains Prof. Piotr Banaszuk.

The team from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences under the direction of Prof. Piotr Banaszuk, DSc, PhD, will be responsible for the European inventory of wetlands, characterisation of their use and development of scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions from agriculturally used wetlands.

A team from the Faculty of Engineering Management, led by Prof. Joanna Ejdys, DSc, PhD, Eng, will be responsible in the project in particular for:

• analysis and evaluation of instruments related to land use decisions;
• development of methods and tools for multi-level stakeholder involvement in sustainable land use management;
• organisation of workshops to raise awareness and generate best practices for sustainable land use management;
• development of a case study of the use of foresight studies for the construction of scenarios related to anthropogenic threats to the Białowieża Forest;
• development of land use scenarios using the Scenario Exploration System.

The project team would like to thank the staff of the Horizon Europe Contact Point (HPK) for Eastern Poland, operating within the structures of Bialystok University of Technology, for their assistance in preparing the project application in terms of formalities.

HPK Eastern Poland is one of six Horizon Europe Contact Points coordinated and financed by the National Contact Point for Horizon Europe, operating within the structures of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR).

Based on materials of Prof. Piotr Banaszuk, DSc, PhD and Prof. Joanna Ejdys, DSc, PhD, Eng.