On 23 and 24 June 2025, the first meeting of European biodiversity portals took place at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. Organised as part of the EU Horizon MAMBO project, the gathering brought together representatives from many of the continent's largest national and regional biodiversity portals - platforms that collectively harness the contributions of tens of thousands of citizen scientists recording tens of millions of observations every year.

The two-day event provided a dedicated space for portal teams to exchange experiences and align priorities on four key themes: large-scale data validation, engaging new user groups, the continued development of image recognition models, and the introduction of sound recognition technology for European birds, bats, amphibians, and grasshoppers. The sound recognition models were developed within the MAMBO project and were presented to the wider portal community for the first time.

Discussions on sound recognition yielded concrete insights into how these tools can be integrated into existing portal infrastructures. On the image recognition front, participants established a shared list of priorities to guide development in the coming years. The group also took the first steps towards exploring whether the portals could collectively adopt the Pl@ntNet identification model for vascular plants - a move that could significantly extend the reach and consistency of plant identification across Europe.