BiodiversityXL is the name of the Centre of Excellence for Netherlands Biodiversity Research. The goal of the centre is to significantly increase the integrated knowledge of Dutch biodiversity in all environments: on land, in fresh and salt water, and from genes to ecosystems. BiodiversityXL is an initiative of Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ-NWO) and Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute-KNAW. The center is the hub for close collaboration with the universities and knowledge institutions of the Netherlands. In the center, research is collaborative and important facilities are shared to further science and society. The Netherlands is an international leader in many of the biological disciplines in the field of biodiversity. Yet linking knowledge is still often lacking, for example on macro- and microbiological diversity. Moreover, it is important to better understand how species react to each other in the face of changes in diversity.This collaboration builds on NWO's recent investments in the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure. Awards were made for the ARISE project (including Naturalis, Westerdijk Institute) for the construction of a globally unique infrastructure to map all multi-cellular species within the Netherlands and for the project to provide innovative (large-scale) scientific equipment to the research fleet of NIOZ. The NIOO is also a partner in the 'Onder het Maaiveld' project, in which underground biodiversity is given the attention it deserves with a contribution from the Nationale Postcode Loterij.