EUFLYNET Meeting in Vienna – Meeting Concluded

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The EUFLYNET meeting in Vienna has officially come to an end for the most of the participants. Over several intensive days, scientists, migration ecologists, ringing specialists, policy experts, and conservation practitioners working across the European–African migratory flyway gathered to exchange knowledge, strengthen collaboration, and define concrete next steps for coordinated action.

The programme reflected the breadth of expertise within the network — from fundamental research on migration biology to policy implementation, data infrastructure, and applied conservation planning.

Highlights from the Programme

Inspiring Plenary Talks

We were honoured to host outstanding plenary speakers, including:

Anders Hedenström – Integrating flight mechanics, energetics and migration ecology in vertebrates
Nat Annorbah – Capacity building in Ghana
Sandra Goded – Habitat use of Afro-Palearctic migrants in Northern Ghana

Major Project Updates and Discussions

The meeting featured substantial progress and forward planning across several key initiatives:

Ringing Database Project (Ivan Maggini) – advancing the structure for a European stopover database integrating data from ringing stations across the continent.
Barn Swallow Tracking Project (Susan McKinlay) – consolidating tracking datasets across the species’ distribution and planning next analytical steps.
New SNF-funded Tracking Project (Martins Briedis) – focusing on multi-sensor geolocator data to estimate annual energy budgets of migratory birds.
Diets of the Flyway Project (Crinan Jarrett) – analysing diet data from migratory and resident birds to identify nutritional bottlenecks along the flyway.
WG3 Demography Screening Effort (Vojtech Brlik) – an ambitious gap analysis involving screening up to 46,000 scientific articles on migratory bird demography.
FlyBack HORIZON (Brady Matsson) - draft concept proposal

From Science to Policy and Implementation

A key theme throughout the meeting was bridging research and real-world conservation action.

Highlights included:

From Law to Action Workshop (Üstüner Birben) – translating CMS, AEWA and EU Birds Directive frameworks into concrete cross-border strategies.
Planning Green Energy Infrastructure (Karen Aghababyan) – identifying migration-safe zones through scientifically grounded flyway mapping.
Economic Perspectives on Implementation Gaps (Yanay Farja) – applying economic theory and stakeholder analysis (MoSCoW framework) to overcome barriers to conservation policy implementation.
Collision Task Force (Jendrik Windt) – assessing progress and future steps to reduce bird mortality.
WG2 Planning – shaping future training opportunities within and beyond the COST Action.

Working Groups and Strategic Planning

Dedicated sessions were held for:

Management Committee meeting
WG1/WG3 general discussions
Communication strategy plan
Final WG reports and closing remarks

The Communication discussion focused on improving how we share the achievements of the Action — through the website, social media, and broader outreach channels.

Looking Ahead

The Vienna meeting once again demonstrated the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration across the European–African flyway. By combining ecological research, advanced tracking technologies, large-scale data integration, economic perspectives, and legal frameworks, EUFLYNET continues to move from knowledge generation toward coordinated conservation impact.

Thank you to everyone who participated — both in Vienna and online.

The work continues.