In September 2012, a joint workshop was organized by the EU-FP7 funded project SPIRAL (www.spiral-project.eu), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and EU Directorate General Research and Innovation (DG RI). The aim was to explore how the science-policy interfaces of EU-funded biodiversity research projects can be improved to more efficiently support European policy-making processes. Representatives from the MS.MONINA project participated to share experiences on the challenges and successes in interfacing the project's research component with the decision-making process at the local, national and EU levels. The direct contact to EU stakeholders contributed to a better understanding of their needs in terms of an EU service for mapping biodiversity. The exchange with other FP7 projects resulted in several ideas on how to better communicate with decision-makers (e.g. innovative tools for communicating the project's results, etc.).