The EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) acknowledges the important role of public awareness and active involvement of the citizens in contributing to the successful implementation of the Regulation. In this context, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed a smartphone application‘Invasive Alien Species Europe’. Its aim is to enable the general public (amateurs and professionals) to receive and share information about IAS of EU concernin Europe and to complement to collection of data in the frame of the Eropean Alien Species Information Network (EASIN). Specifically, the app’s purposes are:

1. to allow recording IAS occurrences by using citizen phones’ GPS system and cameras;
2. to provide information about a selected number of priorty IAS (pictures, short description, addition useful information);
3. to foster citizens’ awareness about the problems caused by IAS in Europe and actively getting the public involved in the management of IAS.

Currently, the IAS Europe app provides details about 66 IAS that are considered to be of interest to the European Union, including 36 plant, 8 invertebrate and 22 vertebrate species. Users can record pictures of possible IAS together with complementary information about their observation. More species are expected to be added in subsequent releases of the app, following the progress of the European policy on IAS.

In addition to the species of EU concern, in 2019, the IAS list of the app has been updated by including species of regional concern. The JRC in collaboration with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) developed an extended list with IAS of concern for the Danube River Basin (DRB). The new list consists of 64 species, of which 20 fish and 44 aquatic invertebrates. Recording of the IAS of DRB concern with the updated app has been tested during the Joint Danube Survey 4 (JDS4) in Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.

Information about and link to download the IAS Europe app  >>>

IAS Europe app user guide  >>>

JRC Citizen Science Platform  >>>