The 11th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2025) took place between 30 September and 4 October 2025 in Denver, United States. As part of the conference programme, REST-COAST held the Coastal Restoration Symposium, which brought together 65 scientists, restoration practitioners and SER2025 participants from across the world. The session highlighted innovative and impactful research, as well as practical restoration efforts, across nine European coastal pilot sites located in the Baltic, North, Black and Mediterranean Seas. Each site represents a climate vulnerability hotspot and serves as a living demonstration of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in action.

The session was led by Project Coordinator Prof. Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla, who presented innovative work from the Ebro Delta and Arcachon Bay, utilising advanced restoration techniques. Umberto Pernice emphasised innovative financial mechanisms and governance transformation, driving restoration forward in the Venice Lagoon. During their discussion of the large-scale restoration project in the Ems-Dollard estuary, Albert Vos and Mathijs Buurman demonstrated how collaboration among provincial and business administrations, ecologists and the local economy is addressing complex coastal challenges.

The session featured presentations of new engagement tools such as an interactive dashboard, serious games exploring sea-level rise, and a new mobile app that helps assess the sustainability of coastal management choices. These tools are helping to scale up restoration, enhance education and social participation, and align local adaptation with global climate mitigation goals for our coasts.

The event closed on a hopeful note: a shared vision of coastal resilience driven by science, collaboration and a rising tide of restoration and hope. It contributed to a growing focus on marine and coastal restoration and resilience, featured at the conference in several symposia and the closing-day plenary.

More about the SER2025 Conference and recordings of all keynote sessions are available at www.ser2025.org.