Peter M Hollingsworth, Kasia Fantoni, Dimitris Koureas, Marine Arakelyan, Filippos A Aravanopoulos, Karolina Bacela-Spychalska, Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia, Pedro Beja, Georgi N Bonchev, Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, Sarah J Bourlat, Tinatin Chkhartishvili, Fedor Čiampor, Filipe O Costa, Zoltán Csabai, Gabriela Dankova, Torbjørn Ekrem, Brent Emerson, Sónia Ferreira, Piotr Gadawski, Konstantinos Gkagkavouzis, Paul D N Hebert, Mihael C Ichim, Mišel Jelić, Elisavet Kaitetzidou, Belma Kalamujić Stroil, Stefaniya Kamenova, Emre Keskin, Alex Laini, Mara Lawniczak, Panagiotis Madesis, Matteo Montagna, Marko Mutanen, Ralph S Peters, Ben Price, Tomasz Rewicz, Rodolphe Rougerie, Björn Rulik, Nikolaus Szucsich, Rutger Vos, William P Goodall-Copestake, Alexandros Triantafyllidis, Michał Grabowski
The International Barcode of Life (iBOL) initiative is building a globally accessible DNA-based system for species identification and discovery. This paper outlines the mission and strategic priorities for the iBOL community in Europe (iBOL Europe), set in a global context. The mission of iBOL Europe is to produce, curate, and provide access to a complete DNA barcode reference library of European eukaryotic biodiversity, catalyzing species discovery and enabling comprehensive, harmonized species identification and biomonitoring, and supporting the global iBOL program. Immediate objectives include completing reference libraries for priority taxa, democratizing access to sequencing technologies, and strengthening a distributed community of practice. Key actions identified span five thematic areas: community building, sample collection and taxonomic verification, sequencing infrastructure, data management, and mainstreaming DNA-based approaches to meet societal needs. The strategy emphasizes integration with European research infrastructures to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience for biodiversity genomics in Europe.