On 25–26 February 2025, Biodiversa+ held a foresight workshop in Oslo, hosted by the Research Council of Norway and co-organised with UNEP-WCMC. The event brought together 30 experts from across disciplines to explore the interplay between Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and transformative change (TC), and to identify future research and innovation (R&I) priorities for achieving sustainability goals.
The workshop built on our report on the “State of evidence on how Nature-based Solutions promote Transformative Change” and aimed to inform both the midterm update of Biodiversa+’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and the EU’s long-term biodiversity research strategy.
Over two half-days, participants engaged in a series of structured exercises, including a horizon scan of social, technological, economic, environmental, political, and values-based trends (STEEPV). They analysed the potential of NbS to drive system-wide shifts in key environments: urban areas, agricultural landscapes, mountain ecosystems, and coastal regions. A standout feature of the workshop was the “Images of the Future” exercise, where participants imagined how today’s trends might shape the future of NbS and transformative change by 2050. Scenarios ranged from hopeful visions of nature-positive economies and new governance models to more critical reflections on equity, risk, and the role of civil society.