Author Description

This publication is an output from EU COST Action DNAqua-Net (CA 15219 - Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe) and would not have been possible without the opportunities for international collaboration provided by the network, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Therefore, our highest gratitude is due to Florian Leese and Agnès Bouchez who designed and led DNAqua-Net, and to programme managers Alex Weigand, Sarah Kückmann and Charlotte Frie who coordinated it. In addition to the authors, hundreds of researchers and practitioners from across Europe and further afield have contributed to the body of knowledge synthesised herein. DNAqua-Net workshops have served as the primary mechanism for consolidating knowledge and were particularly valuable for bringing together research scientists with regulators and end-users, which helped to emphasise the practical considerations in the implementation of DNA-based monitoring programmes. Workshops that ultimately fed into this publication were hosted in Germany (Florian Leese; University of Duisburg-Essen, 2017), Bosnia and Herzegovenia (Belma Kalamujić; University of Sarajevo, 2017), Hungary (Zoltán Csabai; University of Pécs, 2018), Austria (Michael Traugott; University of Innsbruck, 2018), Portugal (Pedro Beja; CIBIO, 2018), Italy (Stefano Fazi; Water Research Institute IRSA-CNR, 2019) and Cyprus (Marlen Vasquez; Cyprus University of Technology, 2019). The workshops highlighted what a collaborative community has emerged among researchers in this field, enabled to a large degree by programmes like DNAqua-Net as well as by a strong collective sense that our research has important real-world applications and is building a foundation for the years to come when we need every tool in the box to promote the protection and recovery of the natural world. We are particularly grateful to all those non-expert users of environmental DNA who fed back to us their exper