At the MTA’s 200th anniversary conference, Melinda Halassy spoke on ecological restoration highlighting community assembly, long-term ecological esearch, and national experience as keys to implementing the Nature Restoration Regulation.

At the 200th anniversary conference of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), our group member Melinda Halassy delivered a lecture on the scientific foundations and practical implications of ecological restoration in the early 21st century. Framing restoration as the "acid test of ecology," she highlighted the importance of community assembly theory and filter-based models, with particular emphasis on dispersal processes, abiotic constraints, and biotic interactions. The talk also underscored the growing relevance of long-term ecological research and landscape-scale perspectives in the context of climate change and biological invasions. Integrating national restoration experiences into planning was identified as a key step toward strengthening the effective, science-based implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation.