The challenges and opportunities of the EU Nature Restoration Law and the role of research. The national project for the development of a catalogue and planning support tool for Nature-Based Solutions.

The adoption of the Nature Restoration Regulation (EU) No 2024/1991 represents a decisive step in Europe's strategy to protect biodiversity and strengthen ecosystem resilience. The legislation sets binding targets for the restoration of degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems, requiring Member States to accelerate conservation policies and the integration of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) into spatial and sectoral planning processes. In this scenario, research assumes a fundamental role not only as a monitoring and evaluation tool, but as a stimulus to guide planning, support innovation in practices and strengthen the capacity of public institutions. The opportunities opened by the Regulation for the world of research are manifold, such as the development of ecological indicators, the modelling of impact scenarios, the experimentation of adaptive approaches, the construction of interoperable databases and integrated decision-making tools. In this regard and within the framework of the National Biodiversity Future Centre, the NbS CataTool is a multi-stakeholders Decision Support System aimed at facilitating the selection of effective, adaptive and coherent Nature-based Solutions (NbS). The CataTool classifies NbS and real-world case studies according to ecosystems and functional criteria distinguishing them across urban, terrestrial and marine domains. It is structured around two interlinked databases: the ‘NbS Database’ and the ‘Case Study Database’. The first is a catalogue of over 100 theoretical NbS derived from existing catalogues and scientific literature. The second hosts more than 100 georeferenced NbS case studies from across Italy, sourced from European repositories and NBFC demonstration sites. Both databases use expert defined Key Performance Indicators to evaluate and compare solutions offering measurable insights to support informed decisions and develop concrete guidelines for evidence-based implementation of Regulation (EU) No 2024/1991.Nature, Restoration, Biodiversity, Research, Nature-based solutions