COST Innovators Grant (CIG) - Empowering Europe's Cities to Build Greener, Healthier, and Climate-Resilient Urban Forests
Urban Tree Guard
Safeguarding European urban trees and forests through improved biosecurity
MoU072/21
CSO Approval25/05/2021
Start Date26/10/2021
End Date25/10/2025
Mission
To empower European municipalities, especially small and medium-sized cities, with accessible, open-source decision-support tools, standardised risk assessment platforms, and practical training to protect urban canopy cover from climate stressors and emerging biosecurity threats.
Vision
To build sustainable, climate-resilient, and biosecure urban treescapes across European towns and cities by bridging the gap between scientific research and practical urban forest management.
Goals
FREE3 bridges research to practice by translating COST Action CA20132 science into open-source tools like QGIS plugins and RShiny applications for municipal workflows. It empowers Europe's roughly 700 small and medium-sized cities by providing an open-access One-Stop Shop for tree inventories and pest risk assessments. FREE3 strengthens cross-sector collaboration to support long-term urban resilience and EU environmental directives.