Petteri Vihervaara is the project coordinator and has extensive experience in  EO for biodiversity research as well as leadership of large research projects. He has wide international scientific networks and has a key role in Biodiversa+ on biodiversity monitoring activities.

Maria Hällfors is Co-Coordinator and WP7 Lead. She is a senior researcher with a strong background in climate-change ecology, focusing on biodiversity change and the impacts of climate change on species distributions. Her research addresses range dynamics and phenological shifts, with the aim of improving understanding and prediction of biodiversity responses to environmental change.

Susanna Koivusaari is a Project Assistant in WP7 and a doctoral researcher focusing on the impacts of climate change and land-use change on biodiversity. Her work supports project coordination and research activities related to understanding biodiversity responses to environmental change. 

Carsten Brockmann is the founder of Brockmann Consult and a senior remote sensing expert with extensive experience in applying Earth observation data for environmental monitoring and analysis.

Jorrit Scholze is a remote sensing specialist with expertise in big data processing, water quality monitoring, and freshwater biodiversity assessment. He contributes to WP2.4 on the data platform ecosystem and to Pilot T5.5, focusing on freshwater ecosystem biodiversity.

Gabriela Popova is a Senior Science Communication Expert at Pensoft Publishers. Gabriela has a double Bachelor’s Degree - one in Multimedia Design and Communications from the University College of Northern Denmark, and one in International Relations from the Aalborg University. With her background and expertise in communications, Gabriela is responsible for the development and implementation of sustainable communication and dissemination plans, managing social media, and creating engaging content for the OBSGESSION project. At Pensoft, Gabriela is a lead in several EU-funded projects centered on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Desislava Raykova has a background in science and education, holding a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Plant Biotechnology. She has worked at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Phytochemistry Department. Her work as a communications expert is connected to disseminating key project messages, creating engaging social media campaigns, updating website news, and increasing the visibility of the project for both the scientific community and the broader public.

Wilfried Thuiller has a background in statistical and mathematical ecology, his expertise includes biodiversity observation and modelling, environmental DNA, community ecology, and conservation planning. He leads WP3 and co-leads biodiversity pilot 5.1, connected to investigating and predicting biodiversity change in the European Alps. 

Joaquim Estopinan is a postdoctoral researcher specialising in the application of Artificial Intelligence for conservation, developing computational approaches to support biodiversity monitoring and management. He is contributing to building a relevant DAM framework  and T3.2, focused on drivers of change in European biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as Biodiversity pilot 5.1. 

Anne Thomas holds a PhD in plant diversification and global change from the University of Cambridge and is a postdoctoral researcher in vegetation modeling and plant diversity at CNRS. Her work focuses on understanding vegetation dynamics and the impacts of global change on plant communities. Her contributions to WP3are through the analysis of model simulations and writing on detection and attribution frameworks. She 

Sara Si-Moussi is a postdoctoral researcher specializing in the application of Artificial Intelligence for conservation, developing computational approaches to support habitat modeling, biodiversity monitoring, and the evaluation of EO-derived data products. She contributes to WP5, Biodiversity Pilot 2 (5.2) on habitat modeling and mapping, and WP2, particularly Task 2.3 on benchmarking Earth Observation products.

Sander Mücher is a senior researcher in Remote Sensing & Geo-Informatics at Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR), within the team Earth Observation and Environmental Informatics. With 30 years of experience in the field of remote sensing and monitoring biodiversity and agriculture. He is involved in many national and international remote sensing activities with a strong accent on habitat & environmental monitoring at different scales. 

Domantas Giržadas is AI specialist and software engineer, and his work contributes to Biodiversity Pilot 5.2, focused on monitoring and reporting towards policy obligations. 

Charlotte van Haren is iCLUE land use modelling senior expert and her involvement in OBSGESSION is in detecting and predicting ecological transitions, connected to identifed drivers of change in European biodiversity and ecosystems. Her work in the project is also aimed at improved understanding of drivers for ecosystem vulnerability.

Marieke Sassen is a senior researcher with 20 years of experience in interdisciplinary research, focusing on trade-offs and synergies between agricultural development and forest and biodiversity conservation across multiple scales. Within the project, her work focuses on identifying recommendations for how the results can be used to inform relevant policies and decision-making processes.

Stella Piipponen-Doyle is WP1 lead and has a background in biodiversity, policy, and marine biology, holding a BSc in Marine Biology and an MSc in Global Wildlife Science and Policy. She previously worked for five years at UNEP’s Brussels Liaison Office to the European Union, focusing on biodiversity and nature-based solutions.

Susana Baena is an Earth Observation (EO) scientist working on a range of projects focused on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

Samantha Hill is Head of Science at UNEP-WCMC and leads biodiversity modelling and policy work within the OBSGESSION project. Her work focuses on applying cutting-edge data and knowledge to improve understanding of trends in biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people.

Tom Mason is a senior scientist at UNEP-WCMC with a background in quantitative ecology and conservation science. His work uses models to understand the ecological impacts of global change and to develop the evidence base for informed conservation decision-making. His work contributes to WP3 and 4, focusing on modeling ecosystem integrity and analysing restoration scenarios. 

Annemarie Eckes-Shephard is based at Lund University, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Sciences, and her work focuses on modeling forest ecosystem processes and dynamics. She is a part of WP3, contributing expertise in computer simulations of forest dynamics. 

Rachid Oucheikh's expertise spans machine learning, geospatial analysis, GIS, and remote sensing, with an emphasis on applying computational approaches to improve ecosystem and biodiversity modeling. His work in Biodiversity Pilot 5.3 Monitoring and forecasting forest ecosystem productivity and health under climate change and disturbances, is focused on downscaling LPJ-GUESS outputs using artificial intelligence and remote-sensing data. 

Margarita Huesca is WP5 Lead. Her expertise includes forestry and biodiversity research, with a focus on time-series analysis, forest disturbances, spatio-temporal modelling, remote sensing, and GIS.  Margarita is actively participating in the identification and prioritisation of EBV needs, as well as in collecting and assesing the quality of geolocation information from in situ and citizen-science datasets.

Andrew Skidmore, co-PI of the University of Twente and member of the External Advisory Board of OBSGESSION. His expertise includes Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), remote-sensing biodiversity products, and the integration of environmental DNA and remote sensing. His background spans spatial ecology, biodiversity, forestry, remote sensing, GIS, and policy. Andrew is cpntributes to the policy landscape and needs assessment done in the project as well as, stepping on his expertise, in science-policy-EBV needs identification.

Andjin Siegenthaler is a researcher specialising in eDNA and remote sensing, with a background in biodiversity, multivariate statistics, spatial ecology, and forestry. He completed his PhD research in marine ecology at the University of Salford, UK. He contributes to Biodiversity Pilot 5.4 (Supporting temperate and boreal forest protection and restoration) through eDNA processing and spatial analyses.

Haidi Abdullah is a researcher in biodiversity monitoring and remote sensing, with a background in image spectroscopy and spatial ecology. He holds a PhD in Remote Sensing of Forest Health and Insect Infestation from the University of Twente, Netherlands, focusing on applying advanced remote sensing techniques to understand forest dynamics and ecosystem health. His work is connected to Remote sensing data processing and spatial modelling and analysis for Biodiversity Pilot 5.4.

Elnaz Neinavaz is a researcher in biodiversity monitoring and remote sensing, with a background in biodiversity and environmental science. She holds a PhD in thermal infrared remote sensing of vegetation cover from the University of Twente, Netherlands. Her current research focuses on assessing the impacts of climate-change-related extreme events on biodiversity using Earth Observation data. With her work she contributes to WP2, WP3 and WP5.

Roshanak Darvishzadeh is an Associate Professor in quantitative remote sensing of vegetation at the University of Twente. She has over 18 years of experience applying field and laboratory methods to study vegetation properties across a wide range of international and EU-funded research projects. In this project, she contributes to Work Packages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Maria J. Santos's work focuses on biodiversity products derived from imaging spectroscopy, including spectral diversity, species distribution models (SDMs), radiative transfer models (RTMs), and dynamic vegetation models (DVMs), with careful assessment of associated uncertainties. She contributes to Work Packages 2 and 3 and is WP4 Lead, while also co-leading Biodiversity Pilot 5.1. 

Andreas Hueni is the Airborne Data Acquisition Lead and oversees uncertainty assessment within the project. His expertise spans computer science, GIS, remote sensing, and operations planning, focusing on optimising data collection and ensuring the reliability of airborne environmental observations. 

Tiziana L. Koch is a researcher specializing in remote sensing, particularly imaging spectroscopy and multispectral satellite data, with a background in forest and grassland ecology.  She contributes to WPs 2, 4, and 5, handling Earth Observation data and the Biodiversity Pilot T5.1, with a focus on biodiversity products derived from imaging spectroscopy, including uncertainty assessment. 

Claudia Röösli specialises in Earth Observation, translating EO data into practical applications, developing remote-sensing-enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) and indicators, and facilitating knowledge transfer to support decision-making. She contributes to WP1 and ESA-relevant actions and recommendations. 

Eline Vanuytrecht is a senior researcher in the Biodiversity and NCA team at VITO’s Remote Sensing Unit, with extensive experience in assessing climate-change resilience and impacts across multiple sectors and domains, including biodiversity. She holds a PhD and an MSc in bioscience engineering. Eline is WP2 lead, and as such, she coordinates the development, selection, and documentation of data and algorithms across the project. She 

Marcel Buchhorn is a senior researcher in VITO’s Remote Sensing Unit. He holds a PhD in Bio-geoscientific Remote Sensing, an MSc in Forestry, and an MSc in Sustainable Resource Management. At VITO, Marcel is developing methods and implementing workflows to automate ecosystem accounting via integration of statistics, spatiotemporal analysis and Earth Observation data. Due to his multi-disciplinary background, he became the main developer in the INCA, PEOPLE-EA and WEED projects focusing on the integration of EO data for ecosystem accounting. Before focusing on NCA, Marcel was the main developer for the Copernicus global land cover products at a 100m resolution utilizing the PROBA-V EO archive.

Lori Giagnacovo is a junior researcher specialising in nature valuation, biodiversity, and ecosystem assessment, developing habitat maps and supporting improvements to data processing and workflow operations using Earth Observation data to detect drivers of change. She holds an MSc in Bioscience Engineering. She contributes to several tasks in WP1, 2, 3, and 5, participating in Biodiversity Pilot 5.2. 

Bruno Smets is a senior expert in the Biodiversity and NCA team at VITO’s Remote Sensing Unit, leading several projects to mainstream ecosystem accounting in Europe and integrating remote sensing datasets. He also has previous experience in multimedia processing and Copernicus services. Bruno contributes to WP2 and WP1, providing expert advice.