The EuropaBON Stakeholder Dashboard: A dynamic web application to map Europe’s biodiversity community

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329390 August 13, 2025 13 / 16 Opportunities and limitations of the dashboard The interactive dashboard developed in this project provides valuable insights into stakeholder relationships and enables users to identify gaps and opportunities for collaboration. The tool follows the FAIR principles [12] and is both machine-readable and reusable. Our open-source approach allows other networks, such as GEO BON or the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, to use, enhance, and build upon our framework. The dashboard infrastructure includes pub- licly accessible source code via GitHub, as well as a public API for programmatic access of the data. This allows other systems to directly connect with our network data. To support reuse and adaptation, additional guidance is available upon request, with technical maintenance ensured through 2029. However, ensuring the long-term value of the dashboard requires more than technical openness. Sustained funding and governance structures must be secured to guarantee regular updates, versioning, and quality control. This includes planning for a handover of dashboard maintenance to a per- manent host institution, ideally within EBOCC or a related European research infrastructure. Without such planning, the dashboard risks becoming static or obsolete. The dashboard’s integration with other European and global platforms also remains limited. For true interoperability, more attention must be paid to aligning metadata standards, API protocols, and

visualisation formats with those used by complementary systems such as GBIF, LifeWatch ERIC, and GEO BON. Estab- lishing regular exchanges with these initiatives could help position the dashboard as a central node in the wider biodiver- sity informatics landscape. Importantly, the EuropaBON stakeholder network remains open to new members. Individuals and institutions interested in joining are encouraged to get in touch via the official project website (www.europabon.org), where a registration form and contact details are available. New members are regularly integrated into the network and reflected in real time on the dashboard. This ensures that the network remains a dynamic and evolving infrastructure, responsive to new collab- orations and expertise. Including this information is essential for demonstrating the long-term relevance, openness, and inclusivity of both the stakeholder network and the dashboard. Clear and sustained communication about how to join is essential not only for inclusivity but also for the operational validity of the dashboard as a living system. However, some technical limitations remain. With a current network size of approximately 1,000 nodes, rendering the graph in the browser takes around 15 seconds. This performance bottleneck is due to the browser-based nature of Cytoscape.js [14]. For larger networks, we therefore recommend conducting calculations server-side. Nevertheless, future improvements in JavaScript, such as enhanced parallelization and GPU support, could further improve performance. Future directions and recommendations

The insights gained from this research may inform future initiatives, particularly the EU Biodiversity Observation Coor- dination Centre (EBOCC), recently launched as a call for tenders by the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment. EBOCC aims to pilot a coordinated biodiversity observation centre based on the EuropaBON proposal, with objectives including harmonised data collection, enhanced collaboration among key actors, support for policy-relevant indicators, and technical guidance to Member States. The stakeholder network and dashboard developed through Europ- aBON could play a supporting role in this context, offering a potential foundation for inclusive engagement, cross-sectoral collaboration, and transparent data access. Their integration into EBOCC would help accelerate progress while providing continuity with existing efforts already aligned with policy and user needs. To realise this potential, key next steps include establishing governance structures for the stakeholder network, clarifying dashboard maintenance responsibilities, ensur- ing interoperability with EU-level data platforms, and defining procedures for onboarding new members and updating the network map. We also encourage other networks to apply this open, reusable dashboard framework to support broader, more inclu- sive stakeholder engagement across sectors, regions, and disciplines – an essential step toward more effective biodiver- sity monitoring in an evolving policy and ecological landscape.