The Annual Report of the European Commission's Joint Research Initiative features several activities relating to biodiversity conservation and monitoring, as well as work on the safety and identification of genetically modified organisms.
10 May 2011: The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has released its Annual Report 2010, which provides an overview of the activities, accomplishments and resources related to the JRC’s work carried out during 2010, including figures on staff, budget and publications.
The report presents highlights of the JRC’s work in different areas, such as energy, safety of food and consumer products, open and competitive economy or sustainable management of natural resources. It also presents the JRC mission and its implementation, the scientific activities and external relations, as well as the JRC input to the various stages of the EU policy cycle.
Activities relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity include the launch of the European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity and support to the EU Marine Framework Directive and work relating to the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA).
On biosafety, the report notes the development of a compendium of reference methods for the analysis of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the development of several new reference materials for GMO detection. [JRC Press Release][Publication: Joint Research Centre – Annual Report 2010]