From 7 to 9 October 2026, the TETTRIX consortium gathered in Brussels, Belgium for our official TETTRIX Kick-off Meeting. This initial but very important event gave us an excellent opportunity to connect with all project partners over impactful discussions and interactive activities, as well as to plan out the next big steps towards building a more integrated taxonomic ecosystem for biodiversity conservation.
The TETTRIX Kick-off Meeting took place at the inspiring Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and continued one for three days – each one filled with different engaging tasks and activities. A big part of our meeting consisted of presentations from our TETTRIX coordinators Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), our TETTRIX partners, partners from our sister project BGE+, as well as our policy officer Gilles Doignon from DG RTD and our project officer Colombe Warin from the European Research Executive Agency (REA).
As part of our TETTRIX vision, we aim to build multiple high-stakes outputs to bring together expertise, collections, digital technologies, and training. Sorted into four main Pillars – Integrate, Transform, Upskill, and Demonstrate – the TETTRIX outputs, some of which already conceptually established during the preceding TETTRIs project, will lead the pipeline from infrastructure to impact.
As part of the Integrate Pillar, we intend to build four interconnected data tools:
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TaxoTrack platform: an open platform for compiling and documenting resources for taxonomic research (led by the Free University of Berlin)
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GHOST framework: a guide for integrating dark taxa into biodiversity data, which will help strengthen Europe’s nomenclature services (led by Meise Botanic Garden)
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Species AI Lab (SAIL): a platform, that can connect to other infrastructures, such as DiSSCo, which will allow us to study how to better discover species with the help of genomic workflows (led by Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
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TETTRIX Marketplace: a a central hub for accessing taxonomic tools, services, and expertise, which will also provide interfaces to the TaxoTrack platform (led by Senckenberg Nature Research)
Next on our pipeline is the Transform Pillar. In this Pillar, we will establish two systems:
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Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) for Taxonomy: a network that will strengthen the links between taxonomy and EU & Global biodiversity policies (led by Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research)
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Taxonomy Cluster: an EU-wide collaborative forum, which will align taxonomy-related EU projects and amplify their impact (led by CETAF)
Just as important is our Upskill Pillar, which will prioritise the education of current and future biodiversity experts. The Pillar, led by the University of Crete, will establish two initiatives:
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TETTRIX Academy: an e-learning platform for future taxonomists that will provide learning resources, introduce a certification system, and help pilot the Taxonomists4Future initiative
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Taxonomists4Future initiative: a programme, which will combine online and face-to-face courses with repositories, assessment, and guidance, and support the establishment of future career pathways in policy and other industries
Finally, our Demonstrate Pillar will pioneer the TETTRIX Satellite projects, which will be managed by the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. These projects are third-party biodiversity initiatives that will be funded by TETTRIX and will focus on testing new tools and methods, addressing underrepresented taxa and ecosystems, and expanding training and participation. The Calls for Satellite projects will open in late 2027!
As an addition to all the outputs, TETTRIX will work alongside private actors like our partner KPMG to broaden the horizons of taxonomy and its impact on other industries. TETTRIX will also continue its tradition of celebrating the Taxonomy Recognition Day every year on 23 May. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook to be the first to discover what we are planning for Taxonomy Recognition Day 2027.
The TETTRIX kick-off meeting was a captivating introduction of everything that we aim to achieve together in the next four years. We are more than eager to continue our hard work on an integrated taxonomic ecosystem in the upcoming months, and to establish taxonomy as a foundational part of biodiversity conservation and research. To hear all about our progress and results from now onwards, subscribe to the TETTRIX newsletter.
