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A new framework for the sustainable management of European Research Infrastructures
A new paper, entitled “Eleven Tenets for the Integrated, Evolving and Sustainable Management of European Research Infrastructure Consortia”, has recently been published in the Biodiversity Data Journal. The paper is authored by Christos Arvanitidis, Cristina Huertas Olivares, Mike Elliott, Alberto Basset, Anne Fouilloux, Ohad Graber-Soudry, D. (Dimitris) Koureas, Lucas de Moncuit, Roland Roberts, Antonio José Saenz-Albanes and Peter van Tienderen. Research Infrastructures play an increasingly important role in scientific discovery, innovation and evidence-informed policy. At the same time, their management has become increasingly complex, requiring scientific, technological, organisational and societal aspects to be considered together rather than in isolation. The...
Wiring computational reproducibility into everyday research: REWIRE project kicks off in Athens
Source: REWIRE press releaseMore computational research is being published with its data and code. But sharing those materials is not the same as making a result reproducible. To reproduce a computational result, researchers also need a record of the decisions made along the way: what was planned, which choices were kept, the software environment in which the analysis ran, and the links connecting a publication to the exact data, code and workflow behind it. The tools for capturing this information already exist. The problem is that they are rarely built into the everyday processes of research. Research planning, execution and...
EOSC Mesh to connect research infrastructures and advance the European Open Science Cloud
Source: EGI FOundation press release From 24 to 25 September 2026, LifeWatch ERIC was involved in the EOSC Mesh kick off meeting in Ghent, Belgium. Adrian Guerrero Bermudez, Hybrid Cloud Data Centre & Software Systems Operation Manager at LifeWatch ERIC ICT Core, and Zhiming Zao, VLIC Technical Manager, joined the meeting.Launched by a consortium of 46 organisations and coordinated by the EGI Foundation, EOSC Mesh - Connecting Nodes to Advance the EOSC Federation is an initiative designed to strengthen the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by connecting research infrastructures, digital services and scientific communities across Europe.EOSC Mesh will establish seven...
REGENSOILL kicks off in Birmingham: regenerating Europe’s brownfield soils
LifeWatch ERIC joined partners from across Europe at Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom, from 16 to 18 September 2026 for the kick-off meeting of REGENSOILL (Regenerating Brownfield Soils through Transdisciplinary Living Labs and Nature-Based Solutions). The 54-month Horizon Europe project contributes to the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” and aims to restore soil quality on industrial and urban brownfield sites through nature-based solutions, digital decision-support tools and regional consultation processes.Around 60 experts from 25 beneficiaries and one associated partner in 12 countries took part, welcomed by Project Coordinator Daniel J. Nowakowski. Over three days, the teams presented...
UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst: A New Global Platform for Exploration, Research, and Protection
Nadja Zupan Hajna, Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU, International Union of Speleology (UIS) On 12 November 2025, the UNESCO General Conference proclaimed 13 September as the International Day of Caves and Karst (IDCK). The new International Day provides a permanent global platform for raising awareness of the importance of caves and karst for biodiversity, water resources, geodiversity, scientific research, cultural heritage and sustainable development. Caves and karst systems are often hidden from view, yet they contain unique natural archives and support highly specialised ecosystems, including many endemic and cave-adapted species that depend on stable subterranean environments. This makes the International...
MEDCONNECT, the Mediterranean Lighthouse of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”, launches in Limassol
Source: MEDCONNECT press release Connecting blue innovators and scaling solutions across the Mediterranean: this is the mission of MEDCONNECT, the Mediterranean Lighthouse of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” officially launched on 29 September 2026 at the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in Cyprus. At a time when the Mediterranean is under growing pressure from climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, MEDCONNECT aims to move promising innovations beyond the pilot stage and into real coastal environments, accelerating their deployment, financing and uptake across the region. The public event took place at the Chamber’s premises in Limassol, Cyprus,...
From a working group to a platform for rapid and effective Red List assessment: the evolution of sRedList
The story of sRedList is one of research and innovation grown directly from practical needs. sRedList developed from challenges related to the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (known as the IUCN Red List), and from the collaborative efforts to address them. Step by step, these efforts shaped the platform into what it is today: a tool developed from experience, shared expertise, and a clear understanding of the practical demands of Red List assessment. At the beginning, sRedList started as a working group funded by sDiv, the synthesis centre for biodiversity sciences of...
LifeWatch ERIC at TDWG 2026: strengthening biodiversity data infrastructures through coordination and interoperability
Anne Fouilloux, LifeWatch ERIC’s CTO, attended the TDWG 2026 Conference and participated in the panel discussion “Strengthening resilience in biodiversity data infrastructures: From practice to global coordination”, on Tuesday 22 September. The discussion, moderated by Sharif Islam (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands) and Giuditta Parolini (Museum für Naturkunde, Germany), started from the question of how scientific collaboration can move beyond “bilateral” technical integrations, to shift toward a coordinated biodiversity data ecosystem. Moving from data siloed across specialised infrastructures like DISSCo, GBIF, BHL, eLTER, ELIXIR, and LifeWatch ERIC, and using the DiSSCo-GBIF collaboration as a starting point, the session invited participants to...
Advancing FAIR tools for climate change adaptation with FAIR2Adapt
The FAIR2Adapt project hasn’t stopped over the summer, and continued to follow its programme of case study development and community engagement, coordinated by LifeWatch ERIC. A fourth webinar in the FAIR Solution series was launched, presented by Tina Odaka (Ifremer), demonstrating how high-resolution coastal ocean models from the RiOMar project can be made accessible and reusable through a FAIR dashboard built on the I-ADOPT framework (full webinar series here: https://www.youtube.com/@EOSCFair2Adaptproject). This summer also brought a notable demonstration of FAIR infrastructure in action: the same FAIR dashboard developed for RiOMar was successfully reused, without modification, for FAIR2Adapt’s Arctic radionuclide case study....
European Researchers’ Night 2026: taking science across Europe
On 25 September 2026, LifeWatch ERIC and its Distributed Centres participated in several initiatives of the European Researchers’ Night (#ERN), bringing biodiversity science, research and innovation closer to citizens across Europe. Understanding the importance of marine ecosystems In Lecce, Italy, the former Olivetani Monastery hosted a series of informative events, such as project booths, documentary projections, and small-scale reconstructions of extremely fascinating scientific experiments. The Marine SABRES project was present with a “Marine SABRES in Fairs” booth. Visitors could test the Marine SABRES Serious Game, developed by LifeWatch ERIC as an interactive experience designed to explore the complex relationships between...
Applications open for the MARBEFES Autumn School 2026: learn to use biodiversity assessment tools!
The MARBEFES project (MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services) is hosting the new edition of its Autumn School in October 2026, after last year's very successful event in Seville. Titled "The MARBEFES Toolbox: from marine diversity to societal value", the School covers topics such as ecological assessment, socio-cultural and economic valuation, cross-cutting decision-support tools, and their uptake in real management settings. Particular emphasis is placed on the ecological tools developed by the project, and collected in the MARBEFES Toolbox: over three days, participants will learn how to use the Toolbox for measuring and valuing marine biodiversity, and...
SERE 2026: LifeWatch ERIC attends the European Conference on Ecological Restoration
Last week, members of LifeWatch ERIC Jorge Osman and Cristina Huertas-Olivares attended the SERE 2026 Conference, the 15th edition of the European Conference on Ecological Restoration, organised by the University of Brest's Geoarchitecture Laboratory in close collaboration with SER-Europe and the 'REVER' network. The main objective of this event was to share knowledge and strengthen links between stakeholders in ecological restoration, with a focus on ecological, social, and political considerations. The conference tackled all aspects of restoration, across different types of ecosystems and territories, including some usually less well-integrated topics, such as the restoration of ecological networks (particularly dark infrastructure)...
LifeWatch ERIC joins ECSA 61: the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association Conference 2026
From 24 to 27 August 2026, a global, multidisciplinary community of researchers and professionals is gathering in Belgium to discuss the urgent challenges posed by the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution – with threats to biodiversity representing a particularly major concern for both the planet health and human societies. This is, in fact, the focus of “ECSA 61: Bridging the gap between science and policy in estuarine and coastal marine biodiversity: the way forward“. Organised by Elsevier and the ECSA Association, the conference features sessions and workshops across four main topics: Physics, Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and...
Tides of Balance: the new documentary by Marine SABRES on the conservation of marine ecosystems
The EU-funded project Marine SABRES is preparing to launch Tides of Balance, a video documentary on the importance of protecting the delicate balance between marine biodiversity and the communities that depend on it. Marine SABRES, acronym for MARINE Systems Approaches for Biodiversity Resilience and Ecosystem Sustainability is dedicated to improving the management of Europe’s oceans and seas. Part of this effort involves bringing scientific research closer to the public, showing what it means to live with the sea, and why healthy marine ecosystems are essential for both nature and society. The documentary is built on the voices and experiences of...
Wetland restoration projects join forces and speak to policy: read the joint White Paper
Collaboration is at the hearth of real impact in research. It is especially encouraging when members of research projects work together, combining their expertise, scientific evidence, and practical knowledge to deliver a shared message with one strong, science-based voice. We are glad to announce the release of a joint, landmark white paper from a group of EU-funded projects on wetlands restoration: RESTORE4Cs, ALFAWetlands, REWET, WET HORIZONS, ForPet, Wetland4Change, and Palus Demos. The paper is called "Prioritising Wetland Conservation and Restoration in Europe | United voices for more policy impact". It collects scientific evidence, policy analysis, and direct experience from research...
A new framework for the sustainable management of European Research Infrastructures
A new paper, entitled “Eleven Tenets for the Integrated, Evolving and Sustainable Management of European Research Infrastructure Consortia”, has recently…
Wiring computational reproducibility into everyday research: REWIRE project kicks off in Athens
Source: REWIRE press releaseMore computational research is being published with its data and code. But sharing those materials is not…
EOSC Mesh to connect research infrastructures and advance the European Open Science Cloud
Source: EGI FOundation press release From 24 to 25 September 2026, LifeWatch ERIC was involved in the EOSC Mesh kick…
REGENSOILL kicks off in Birmingham: regenerating Europe’s brownfield soils
LifeWatch ERIC joined partners from across Europe at Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom, from 16 to 18 September 2026…
UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst: A New Global Platform for Exploration, Research, and Protection
Nadja Zupan Hajna, Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU, International Union of Speleology (UIS) On 12 November 2025, the UNESCO General…
MEDCONNECT, the Mediterranean Lighthouse of the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters", launches in Limassol
Source: MEDCONNECT press release Connecting blue innovators and scaling solutions across the Mediterranean: this is the mission of MEDCONNECT, the…
From a working group to a platform for rapid and effective Red List assessment: the evolution of sRedList
The story of sRedList is one of research and innovation grown directly from practical needs. sRedList developed from challenges related…
LifeWatch ERIC at TDWG 2026: strengthening biodiversity data infrastructures through coordination and interoperability
Anne Fouilloux, LifeWatch ERIC’s CTO, attended the TDWG 2026 Conference and participated in the panel discussion “Strengthening resilience in biodiversity…
Advancing FAIR tools for climate change adaptation with FAIR2Adapt
The FAIR2Adapt project hasn’t stopped over the summer, and continued to follow its programme of case study development and community…
European Researchers’ Night 2026: taking science across Europe
On 25 September 2026, LifeWatch ERIC and its Distributed Centres participated in several initiatives of the European Researchers’ Night (#ERN),…













