This three-year European project delivers a blueprint, practical recommendations and sustainability priorities to improve how aquatic environmental DNA data is shared and used

The EU-funded eDNAqua-Plan project concluded on 31 August 2026, delivering a Technical Blueprint, an Implementation Roadmap, and a Sustainability Plan for Europe’s aquatic environmental DNA (eDNA) digital ecosystem. Coordinated by the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), the project brought together 18 partner institutions across Europe to help make biodiversity data more accessible, connected, and useful for monitoring freshwater and marine environments.

eDNA is genetic material that organisms have left behind in their environment,   and analysing this material  can help to identify which organisms were present. However, gaps in DNA reference libraries, incomplete and inconsistent metadata, and disconnected data  repositories limit how easily findings can be compared and reused across the digital ecosystem.

eDNAqua-Plan addressed these barriers through an audit of existing resources, recommendations for data standards, and testing with freshwater and marine use cases. Its principal achievements include:

• Mapping the existing landscape: identifying gaps in genomic reference libraries, eDNA and biodiversity repositories, biobanks and culture collections, taxonomic systems, and data publishing practices; and identifying opportunities for better coordination
• Improving data connections: developing recommendations for metadata sharing, reference-sequence quality, reference library practices, and linking between biodiversity and genomic databases
• Testing practical workflows: assessing seven areas, from data management planning and sequence submission to laboratory protocols and taxonomic assignment
• Planning implementation: translating findings into a Blueprint, Roadmap and Sustainability Plan covering technical priorities, governance, funding, and community participation.

The eDNAqua-Plan Roadmap proposes phased implementation through 2035. It sets priorities for connecting existing infrastructures, improving standards and supporting the uptake of DNA-based monitoring. These recommendations are intended to enable monitoring under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Alongside its technical outputs, eDNAqua-Plan has published a Policy Factsheet setting out concrete recommendations for policymakers to unlock eDNA’s full potential in environmental decision-making. The project calls on policymakers to adopt eDNA-based monitoring in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and relevant reporting requirements, and to include eDNA metrics in national biodiversity action plans and the EU Ocean Pact and OceanEye initiatives. It further recommends sustained investment in digital infrastructure and governance—funding the maintenance and scaling of eDNA repositories and data portals, while establishing governance bodies to oversee long-term interoperability, standards and community coordination.

The factsheet also urges the enforcement of open data and FAIR principles for all EU-funded biodiversity monitoring projects, and dedicated funding to expand federated, taxonomically curated reference libraries under common (meta)data standards, ensuring interoperability across Member States. To ensure legal traceability, it recommends embedding Nagoya Protocol and BBNJ-compliant metadata in eDNA workflows for genetic resources and digital sequence information (DSI). Finally, the project calls for cross-sector collaboration—convening stakeholders from science, industry and policy to align on eDNA standards and best practices and supporting public-private partnerships to scale eDNA adoption in commercial biodiversity monitoring.

The project’s recommendations provide a basis for further investment, collaboration and implementation beyond its lifetime. Public outputs can be accessed through the project website and eDNAqua-Plan Zenodo community.