Anthropogenic pressures including climate and land use change are widely recognized as major drivers of the ongoing global biodiversity crisis (1). Processes such as increasing temperatures, urbanization and agricultural intensification are just a few of the stressors to species, and communities and forcing them to either adapt, move or go extinct. Although effects of those anthropogenic pressures are already visible in many ecosystems globally, current climate change scenarios are predicting a further increase in global mean temperatures above pre-industrial levels (2), exacerbating the loss of biodiversity, termination of evolutionary potential and disruption of ecosystem services (3). Many species are not able to adapt to the new conditions rapidly enough and are coerced to shift their ranges to match their environmental niches (4). Despite the fast-increasing research addressing global change and its effects on biodiversity, most of the past work on the topic has been conducted at the national or regional level hampering the feasibility to synthesize patterns and draw conclusions at a scale relevant to policy making and conservation action (5). Furthermore, with a growing human population and ongoing climate change we know that anthropogenic pressures will likely continue to intensify in the future – which is why we now need to anticipate major and scale-relevant drivers for future biodiversity based on lessons from the past (6). Our symposia will serve as a platform for synthesizing large-scale, international studies covering large spatial areas and a wide range of taxa to obtain a more holistic and “big-picture” overview of main drivers for future biodiversity patterns and solutions to mitigate its loss thereafter.