THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATURE IN ISRAEL

Their core work

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) is Israel's oldest and largest nature conservation NGO, bringing civil society expertise and Mediterranean ecological knowledge into EU research consortia. In their H2020 participation, they function as an end-user and practitioner partner — grounding scientific observatory and fisheries management work in real-world conservation practice and policy needs. Their specific contributions span marine biodiversity monitoring in the Mediterranean, integration of field-level ecological data into regional platforms, and translating scientific outputs into actionable policy tools. They represent the Israeli Mediterranean coastline perspective in pan-European marine research networks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 participation (ODYSSEA, 2017–2021), SPNI was embedded in a technical effort to build integrated Mediterranean monitoring infrastructure — the keywords reveal a focus on observatory systems, cross-dataset fusion, and creating policy-facing tools from raw marine data. Their more recent project (EcoScope, 2021–2025) shifts away from platform-building toward applied fisheries governance, with an ecocentric framing that places ecosystem health as the management target rather than just data collection. The trend suggests SPNI is moving from contributing practitioner input to data platforms toward shaping how that data drives fisheries and biodiversity policy decisions.

SPNI is transitioning from providing end-user grounding in monitoring infrastructure projects toward active participation in ecosystem-based marine governance and sustainable fisheries policy — a higher-influence position in the research-to-policy chain.

How they like to work

SPNI has participated exclusively as a non-coordinating partner across both projects, operating within large international consortia rather than leading them. Despite only two projects, they have engaged 46 unique partners across 22 countries — a sign they join major, well-networked Mediterranean research initiatives rather than small bilateral collaborations. This profile fits an organization valued for its civil society legitimacy and field presence rather than its technical leadership, making them a reliable specialist contributor in large Research and Innovation Action (RIA) consortia.

Through just two projects, SPNI has built a network of 46 partners spanning 22 countries — an unusually broad reach that reflects participation in flagship pan-Mediterranean research consortia. Their network is concentrated in the Mediterranean basin but extends to northern and central European research institutions involved in marine governance.

What sets them apart

SPNI is one of the very few conservation NGOs from Israel active in H2020 marine research, giving them a distinctive position as the Israeli civil society voice in Mediterranean ecosystem projects — a perspective EU consortia often need to satisfy geographic and stakeholder breadth requirements. Their decades of on-the-ground nature conservation experience in Israel's Mediterranean coast and inland ecosystems offers grounded ecological knowledge that purely academic partners cannot replicate. For consortium builders targeting Mediterranean Blue Growth funding, SPNI provides both thematic credibility and geographic coverage for the eastern Mediterranean that is otherwise hard to fill.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ODYSSEA
  A flagship Mediterranean-wide observatory network project where SPNI helped shape the end-user and policy-tool requirements for a pan-regional marine data integration platform.
• EcoScope
  SPNI's highest-funded project (EUR 195,000), targeting ecocentric fisheries management — a signal that their role is expanding from data user to co-shaper of marine ecosystem governance frameworks.