2026 Early Career Conservation Award Winner

2026-05-04 11:21:00

SCB Europe is pleased to announce that the 2026 Early Career Conservation Award goes to Louise O'Connor.

Louise is honored with this award for advancing spatial conservation planning in Europe by integrating species interaction networks and ecosystem services and supporting conservation policy to enable biodiversity recovery under climate and land use change.

Louise O'Connor graduated three years ago at the Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine in Grenoble (France) and works now as a postdoctoral researcher at the interface of biogeography, ecological networks, and conservation science. Her work combines spatial prioritization, network analyses, and science-policy engagement. Louise is currently working within the Horizon Europe NaturaConnect project and develops spatial conservation and restoration scenarios to support the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, integrating biodiversity and nature's contributions to people, climate change, connectivity, land use change and socio-economic factors.