Four-year initiative will expand Red List assessments, fund work on overlooked species, and strengthen a network of over 11,000 conservation experts

DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the Colossal Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of Colossal Biosciences, today announced a four-year, $4 million partnership to expand the responsible use of advanced technologies in global species conservation. The initiative will bring cutting edge technology to conservation including to bolster Red List assessments, establish a grants program for overlooked species, strengthen the IUCN SSC’s global network and build public understanding of species conservation. The partnership brings together more than 11,000 IUCN SSC experts working through 210 groups in 186 countries with scientific and technological capabilities from across the Colossal ecosystem. The organizations will develop and evaluate tools that help conservation experts gather, organize and analyze evidence more efficiently, while preserving IUCN SSC’s scientific independence and established Red List standards.

“IUCN Species Survival Commission has spent more than seventy years building the scientific foundation the world relies on to understand which species are in trouble and why,” said Vivek Menon, Chair, IUCN Species Survival Commission. “What we have often lacked is the capacity to move at the scale the crisis demands. This partnership with the Colossal Foundation gives our network access to tools and resources that can help us direct this knowledge to threatened species and slow down the threat of extinction.”

MODERNIZING ASSESSMENTS AND ACCELERATING ACTION
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM is the world’s most comprehensive source of information on the global conservation status of species. IUCN currently reports more than 175,900 assessed species, and more than 49,500 threatened with extinction, representing 28% of those assessed. Yet the vast share of the world’s biodiversity has not been evaluated, and keeping assessments current requires sustained scientific capacity and the help of technology to achieve scale.

Conservation attention and funding remain uneven. Many fungi, plants, invertebrates, fishes and reptiles receive limited support despite being identified as urgent conservation priorities. The partnership’s new grants program will direct resources toward these overlooked species, with eligibility criteria and a selection process to be announced.

At the same time, Colossal’s work in genome sequencing, gene editing, biobanking, AI and assisted reproductive technologies is generating new tools and insights with potential applications for species conservation. Through the partnership, IUCN SSC experts will evaluate how these and other emerging technologies can be applied responsibly and effectively, helping translate promising advances from the laboratory into practical tools for conservation teams in the field.

“Extinction prevention is a race against time, and the people closest to threatened species should have access to every responsible tool that can help them win that race,” said Matt James, Executive Director, The Colossal Foundation. “Partnering with IUCN SSC gives the Colossal Foundation a remarkable opportunity to expand what is possible for conservation. Together, we can accelerate assessments, equip frontline teams, invest in overlooked species and put powerful new technologies into the hands of experts working on the front lines. Our goal is not simply to respond to extinction, but to help prevent it—and to turn today’s most promising technologies into practical, widely available tools for species recovery.”

The Memorandum of Understanding marks the first step in a four-year collaboration and establishes the framework through which the organizations will work toward four shared goals:

• Modernizing Red List Assessments and Conservation Technology: The partners will develop, evaluate and deploy AI-enabled tools, large datasets and emerging technologies that support and expand the work of IUCN SSC network. Early priorities include forming an IUCN SSC Innovation Taskforce and convening experts to identify the technologies with the greatest potential conservation value.
• Support for Overlooked Species: The partners will establish a dedicated grants program for IUCN SSC groups focused on species that receive limited conservation attention or funding.
• Global Species-Survival Communications Campaign: The organizations will create a global campaign to strengthen informed public understanding of species conservation, restoration and biodiversity.
• Strengthening the IUCN SSC Network: The partnership provides direct support for the IUCN SSC Chair’s Office and Steering Committee, including coordination, representation and core operational functions that enable the global network to assess, plan and act for species.

IUCN SSC’s scientific independence will guide every aspect of the partnership. Red List assessments, scientific evaluations and policy positions will continue to follow IUCN’s established standards and independent expert-review processes. In accordance with IUCN policy on Synthetic Biology in relation to Nature Conservation, IUCN SSC experts will evaluate emerging conservation biotechnologies—including their potential benefits, risks, uncertainties, safeguards and appropriate applications—and contribute independent scientific evidence to conservation, scientific and regulatory decision-making worldwide.

BUILDING ON YEARS OF SHARED WORK
The partnership strengthens a relationship that has developed over several years. The Colossal Foundation has supported Reverse the Red, an action partnership co-chaired by the IUCN SSC and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and has provided multi-year general support to the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group. The Foundation has also worked with the IUCN SSC Pigeon and Dove Specialist Group and the Samoa Conservation Society to locate and conserve the Manumea, or the Tooth-billed Pigeon Samoa’s critically endangered national bird, combining field surveys with AI-assisted bioacoustics detection.

“There is no conservation network in the world with the depth of expertise, global reach and scientific credibility of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and partnering with its extraordinary network is both a privilege and a call to action,” said Ben Lamm, Co-Founder and CEO, Colossal Biosciences. “The future of conservation depends on getting powerful technologies out of the lab and into the hands of the people working closest to species at risk. Together, we can break down the barriers between scientific innovation and frontline conservation—putting powerful technologies into the hands of experts around the world and deploying them with the urgency, ambition and scale the extinction crisis demands.”

ABOUT THE COLOSSAL FOUNDATION
The Colossal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting the use of cutting-edge technologies for conservation efforts globally to help prevent extinction of keystone species. The organization deploys de-extinction technologies and support to empower partners in the field to reverse the extinction crisis. Learn more at www.ColossalFoundation.org.

ABOUT IUCN SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION
With over 11,000 members in 186 territories, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest of the seven expert Commissions of IUCN and enables it to influence, encourage and assist societies to conserve biodiversity by building knowledge on the status and threats to species, providing advice, developing policies and guidelines, facilitating conservation planning, and catalysing conservation action. The SSC has been recognised as “the world’s largest volunteer conservation-science network” by Guinness World Records®. Learn more at www.iucn.org/ssc.

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SOURCE Colossal Biosciences Inc.