The Monitoring Centre website is aimed at stakeholders from science, federal and state authorities, professional societies and associations, as well as volunteers. In the future, special offers will also be made to address those active in Citizen Science projects and the interested public. It is planned that the information and networking platform will offer suitable access and services for the needs of the various monitoring stakeholders making data and tools available accordingly.

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The Monitoring Centre head office is staffed with a dedicated team with different expertise from the fields of biodiversity monitoring and research, as well as specialised disciplines such as geoecology, soil biology, agricultural biology, landscape planning and geography. This ensures broad expertise and networking. Currently, up to 20 positions are planned for the diverse tasks of the Monitoring Centre.

The Monitoring Centre consists of the head office and several committees with different tasks. Experts from ministries, specialised authorities and associations, science, research, natural history museums and collections, as well as other institutions and stakeholder groups with the relevant expertise and knowledge are represented in the committees. An overview of the structure and organisation of the Monitoring Centre can be found on the website Structure.

The goals and tasks of the Monitoring Centre are summarised on the website Goals.

The main tasks of the centre are to advance the national biodiversity monitoring, to provide information on biodiversity monitoring centrally and transparently, to advise and connect stakeholders and interested parties, to advance data storage and management, and to support networking with European and international activities. For the Monitoring Centrehead office, the specific tasks are presented on the head office website.

The Monitoring Centre orientation is determined by its committees in different ways. The steering committee sets the overarching political-strategic framework for the activities of the Monitoring Centre. The principle expert committee defines the technical tasks of the Monitoring Centre and sets the priorities for implementation. In the expert committees, the relevant topics are discussed in detail and the Monitoring Centre is advised on specific issues.

More detailed information on the decision-making processes of the Monitoring Centre can be found on the website Committees.

Caused by the worldwide loss of biodiversity and especially the debate on insect mortality, the Federal Government decided to establish the National Monitoring Centre for Biodiversity. This was supported by the relevant departments of the concerned ministries (BMUV, BMBF, BMEL, BMF, BMDV, BMVg). The aim of the Monitoring Centre is to advance nationwide biodiversity monitoring through the cooperation of all stakeholders, to connect all those involved and to provide information. The Monitoring Centre is intended to create a firm foundation for bringing together all knowledge on the state of species and habitats in Germany and making it accessible in the future. By that, we want to significantly improve the database on developments in biological diversity. Further background information can be found under Background.

At least two years are planned for the establishment phase from the foundation of the Monitoring Centre (26 March 2021). The milestones of the establishment phase are:

• Establishment of the head office and the committees
• Expansion of the website and development of the information and networking platform
• Development of an overall concept for nationwide biodiversity monitoring
• Bringing together and connecting monitoring stakeholders
• Establishment of the "Application and Research in Dialogue" forum

Since launching the Monitoring Centre on 26 March 2021, the following activities have been implemented:

• establishment, trainings, induction of the first team members
• Creation of an "interim website" as a transition to the planned information and networking platform
• Comprehensive research work on monitoring programmes, biodiversity data, influencing factors etc.
• Preparation of first profiles on monitoring programmes
• Participation in EU activities (Biodiversity Partnership, Standards Committees)
• Support of national activities (LTER-D, NFDI, MonVIA, FeDA etc.)
• Appointment of the steering and principle expert committee and establishment of first expert committees, holding of first meetings

The following activities are planned until the end of the establishment phase (2023):

• Concept development for the information and networking platform as a participatory process
• Recording the current status and developing an overall concept for nationwide biodiversity monitoring
• Appointment and implementation of expert panels & workshops on priority topics, such as soil monitoring or data management
• Organisation and implementation of the "Application and Research in Dialogue" forum

By affiliating the Monitoring Centre head office at the BfN, long-standing, broad-based structures can be used and systematically expanded in a way that increases efficiency. The head office is not integrated as an organisational unit within one of the BfN's specialist departments deliberately, but as an independent unit. The decision was made in accordance with a lengthy discussion process with the relevant ministries and numerous biodiversity stakeholders.

The Monitoring Centre is not a research institution itself and does not conduct its own ground research. However, an important task of the Monitoring Centre is the development of an overall concept for a nationwide biodiversity monitoring. In addition, it supports the transfer of knowledge and data in particular. For example, current research findings are incorporated into the work of the Monitoring Centre. Science, in turn, can use the data obtained through biodiversity monitoring for its research. The Monitoring Centre also supports developing and advancing of monitoring methods by ensuring that existing long-term data series are comparable. An overview of the research initiatives of other institutions and agencies can be found on the website profiles. The profiles are available in German only.

The aim of the Monitoring Centre is to make monitoring data and technical information more easily accessible and transparently available. The Monitoring Centre does not collect any data itself. It is planned that after the establishment phase, the Monitoring Centre will successively present data from the various monitoring projects and sources in a summarised form and link to the sources accordingly. The website is currently under construction. An overview of the current projects can already be found as profiles on the website. As far as possible, we have linked the data availability, the most direct access link and the contact persons or institutions externally for you in our profiles. The profiles are available in German only. You will also find information on data management on our expertise website.

No. The practical implementation of monitoring projects and in particular the collection of data in situ is not the task of the Monitoring Centre. The respective monitoring projects are not controlled by the Monitoring Centre, but remain under the sovereignty of the responsible ministries or the federal states and professional societies. An overview can be found on the website profiles. The profiles are available in German only.