CA25179 - Balkan Uplands Resilience, Environment, and Knowledge Network (BUREK)

The BUREK Action builds a transnational network to study how people and environments have shaped each other in the mountain landscapes of Southeastern Europe over the past nine millennia. The Action focuses on mountain lake basins and surrounding uplands in a three-national border region at the intersection of the Mediterranean and the Balkan macro-regions, where rich archaeological and environmental archives record long-term human adaptation to ecological change. These archives remain scattered, underused, and often inaccessible. BUREK will activate, expand, and harmonise them within an open, FAIR-compliant data infrastructure to enable comparative, diachronic analysis of land-use and subsistence practices from prehistory to the present.

By linking archaeological, palaeoecological, and ethnographic evidence, the network will create shared standards, digital tools, and analytical workflows for the study of mountain landscapes. Four Working Groups will coordinate data integration, training, community engagement, and policy outreach. Through workshops and Short-Term Scientific Missions, the Action will strengthen research capacity—especially in Inclusiveness Target Countries—and provide new and robust opportunities for Early Career Investigators.

The BUREK Action will also promote collaboration with heritage institutions and local communities to connect scientific research with traditional ecological knowledge and sustainable resource management. The resulting guidelines, datasets, and policy recommendations will support evidence-based heritage protection, land stewardship, and regional resilience in line with the European Green Deal and UN Sustainable Development Goals.