On 6-7 May, we had our second FunDive workshop in Bayreuth, Germany. It was a great time to share all the progress we have made over the last year, to exchange experiences and develop new ideas for the future. And not least it was great to enjoy more informal discussions with amazing colleagues! And nice that the meeting did not only involve funded FunDive partners, but also attracted collaborating partners involved in the project based on their own funding. Also great to meet all the young scientists now involved in the project

As a project coordinator, I am extremely proud with what we have archieved over the last year, including sampling 135 Pinus sylvestris plots for fungal eDNA across 22 European countries, from Portugal, Italy and Greece in the south, to Finland, Norway and Sweden in the north, and with the most eastern plots in Ukraine close to Kharkiv – what an archievement! On top of this we have sampled an additional 12 plots in P. cembra stands in the alps, and 61 P. nigra plots, including stands on Cyprus and Algeria.

To this we can add our nine Citizen science campaigns that have involved more than 290 recorders in 23 countries producing more than 1800 records, many with associated specimens that are currently in the process of being DNA-barcoded. We already know that several of the collections represent new country-level records and even new species to science

We are also in process with barcoding fungal type collections from Fungaria across Europe, using a combination of sanger sequencing and high-throughput pipelines, including Illumina and Nanopore. Our bold ambition is to attempt sequencing 10.000 types, but the workflow has appeared to be more demanding than first anticipated, so we may not be able to reach that number within the timeframes of the project. In addition, progress is made with developing AI models for species identification and modelling and in using existing eDNA and sporocarp data for analyzing fungal phenology and diversity patterns across the continent.

Very warm thanks to all WP coordinators and to all partners making this possible, and to Franz-Sebastian Krah from University of Bayreuth for arranging all the logistics.

Fundive is funded by Biodiversa+ under the 2022-2023

BiodivMon joint call. It was co-funded by the European Commission (GA No. 101052342), and numerous national funding agencies.