NATURSTYRELSEN

Their core work

Naturstyrelsen is the Danish Nature Agency, the public authority responsible for managing Denmark's state forests, nature reserves, and national parks. In H2020 projects, they contribute practical, large-scale land management experience to ecosystem restoration and climate resilience initiatives — bringing real-world implementation capacity rather than laboratory research. Their involvement centers on deploying nature-based solutions across forest and freshwater landscapes, translating scientific methods into on-the-ground restoration actions across Danish public lands.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

All three projects began in 2021, so Naturstyrelsen's H2020 engagement represents a concentrated burst rather than a long evolution. However, a thematic shift is visible: early keywords emphasize broad systemic transformation (nature-based solutions, European Green Deal, transformative systemic change), while later keywords zoom into specific forestry practice (close-to-nature forestry, integrated forest management, biodiversity monitoring). This suggests a trajectory from general climate-resilience framing toward applied forest management expertise.

Naturstyrelsen is deepening its focus on operational forest restoration and biodiversity monitoring, making them an increasingly relevant partner for projects needing real demonstration landscapes and public land management expertise.

How they like to work

Naturstyrelsen operates exclusively as a participant, never coordinating — consistent with their role as a public land management agency that contributes implementation sites and practical expertise rather than leading research agendas. With 125 unique partners across 27 countries from just 3 projects, they work in very large consortia typical of major EU Innovation Actions. This means they are experienced in complex multi-partner environments and comfortable delivering within large collaborative frameworks.

Despite only three projects, Naturstyrelsen has built connections with 125 partners across 27 countries, reflecting the large-scale Innovation Action consortia they participate in. Their network spans nearly all EU member states, giving them broad European reach for a national public agency.

What sets them apart

As Denmark's national nature and forest management authority, Naturstyrelsen offers something most research partners cannot: direct control over hundreds of thousands of hectares of public land for real-world demonstration and implementation. This makes them an exceptionally valuable partner for projects that need to move beyond laboratory or pilot scale to landscape-level deployment. Few organizations can offer both the institutional authority and the physical territory to test ecosystem restoration at meaningful scale.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SUPERB
  Largest funding (EUR 795K) and most thematically specific — focused on upscaling forest restoration across Europe with close-to-nature forestry practices.
• MERLIN
  Addresses freshwater ecosystem restoration at landscape scale, connecting water and land management — a cross-domain topic relevant to EU Green Deal targets.