SER2026 – Brest (France)

The 15th edition of the SERE Conference took place in Brest from August 24 to 28, 2026. The title of the conference was “PLAN FOR TOMORROW, RESTORE NOW!”, aiming to share knowledge and strengthen links between stakeholders in ecological restoration. More than 650 participants from several EU and non-EU countries attended the event, sharing experiences in ecological restoration across both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

This edition of the SERE conference featured a strong presence of contributions dealing with marine ecosystems (4 sessions), including a special session dedicated to deep-sea ecosystem restoration. The different tasks and work packages (WPs) of the REDRESS project were well represented across three special sessions and one workshop.

Session SS9, “Deep-sea ecosystem restoration”, was conceived as a joint effort between three projects: REDRESS, Life DREAM, and Life ECOREST and was co-chaired by Cristina Gambi (UNIVPM), Giorgio Castellan (CNR) and Jordi Grinyo (CSIC). Twelve talks were presented by the partners of the three projects:

1. Deep Sea Ecosystem Restoration: lessons learned from REDRESS – Cristina Gambi (UNIVPM)
2. Deep-sea restoration – implementation of a pilot site in coral reef habitats of the Guilvinec Canyon, Bay of Biscay – Franck Lartaud (SU)
3. Restoring the European Atlantic cold-water coral reef belt – Anthony Grehan (UNIGalway)
4. Towards scalable cost-effective restoration of deep-sea coral gardens in the North Atlantic Ocean – Marina Carreiro Silva (IMAR-UAz)
5. The one that unites all: Helping nature support humans – The role of discourses in the governance of deep-sea restoration in the European Seas – Johanna Buerkert (WU)
6. Restoration of Mediterranean cold-water coral habitats: outcomes and lessons from LIFE DREAM project – Giorgio Castellan (CNR)
7. Advancing Deep-Sea and Mesophotic Habitat Restoration: Lessons from LIFE ECOREST – Jordi Grinyo (CSIC)
8. Benthic Community Response to Alcyonium palmatum Restoration: A Time-Lapse Comparison of Transplant and Control Sites on the Catalan Shelf – Federico M. Gigli (NIOZ)
9. Development of novel techniques for the active restoration of Pennatulacean assemblages in soft-bottom habitats – Fabiola Maria Cecchini (CSIC)
10. Scaling Up Sponge Restoration in Mesophotic and Deep-Sea Ecosystems: From Experimental Trials to Operational Implementation – Jordi Grinyo (CSIC)
11. Assessing active restoration effects on epibenthic motile assemblages in shelf environments: an experimental approach – Sofia Faramelli (CSIC)
12. Early ecological responses of bentho-demersal communities to new Fishery No-Take Zones in the NW Mediterranean: evidence of passive restoration – Marina Biel-Cabanelas (CSIC)

Session SS7, “Seascape restoration: From policy ambition to system-scale action”, organized by Sahar Stevenson-Jones (SERE), featured 9 talks from different marine restoration projects. Cristina Gambi (UNIVPM) was invited to present an overview of the main achievements of the REDRESS project and its contribution to policies for upscaling restoration interventions.

On the last day of the conference, Session SS10, “Analyzing the socio-economic impacts of deep-sea marine ecosystem restoration”, co-chaired by Stephen Hynes (UniGalway) and Silvia Gallegati (UNIVPM) featured the following contributions from different EU projects:

1. Estimating the value of deep-sea ecosystem restoration in Irish waters using a stated preference approach – Stephen Hynes (UniGalway)
2. A cost-benefit analysis tool for deep-sea habitat restoration decision making – Daniel Norton (UniGalway)
3. How much are Cold-Water Corals worth? Public Willingness to Pay for Deep-Sea Restoration in Italy – Silvia Gallegati (UNIVPM)
4. Willingness to pay for improving ecological status of the Oslofjord – Wenting Chen (NIVA)

In the afternoon, the interactive Workshop 2, “Implementing the Nature Restoration Law for Marine Environments: Common and unique governance challenges and opportunities for shallow and deep-sea habitats”, chaired by Johanna Buerkert (WU) took place as a collaborative effort with the EU projects Protect Baltic and CLIMAREST, focusing on making the Nature Restoration Law work for marine environments.

A shoutout to our early-career researchers, who substantively contributed to disseminating our work. We are especially proud of Gal-la Edery (UAz) for winning the early-career researcher prize with the poster “P74. Identifying critical early life history stages in cold-water corals to support restoration success”.