WoRMS (https://www.marinespecies.org) the World Register of Marine Species supported by LifeWatch Belgium, and AlgaeBase have been collaborating since 2013. Recently, their collaboration has led to a new result: building on the widely used WoRMS taxon-match tool, a dedicated version developed for AlgaeBase has been made available through the LifeWatch Belgium eLab. AlgaeBase (https://www.algaebase.org) is a database of algae information, including terrestrial, marine and freshwater algae and seagrasses. It was funded in 1996 by the Irish Higher Education Authority's Programme for Research in Third-level Institutions, and has been maintained since then - mainly through private funds - in support of taxonomic...

The collection of multi-language Policy Briefs from the RESTORE4Cs Project (https://www.restore4cs.eu/resources/policy-briefs), provides best practices and science-based knowledge on European coastal wetlands restoration, gathered through the three years of project, and across 6 case studies. In this article we talk about Policy Brief #8 and #9. Policy Brief #8 “Advancing a coherent framework for assessing European coastal wetland condition”, addresses the lack of a clear definition of coastal wetlands, a shortcoming that results in these areas often being overlooked within policy frameworks. The document advances a harmonised definition of coastal wetlands, aligned with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), that captures...

LifeWatch ERIC is proud to be part of the new funded project RECUP-DAS, through an agreement signed together with the Andalusian Regional Governement and the University of Huelva. With a total budget of 10.4 million euros, RECUP-DAS is a strategic initiative funded under ERDF Andalusia 2021-2027, that promotes the environmental recovery of the Tinto and Odiel river basins, two of the systems that most suffered the acid drainage from historical mining (the name "Río Tinto" refers to the reddish colour of its waters from iron and other metals dissolved into them). This initiative entails the collaboration of the Ministry of...

ITINERIS (https://itineris.cnr.it/) is an initiative started in November 2022 with the objective to support the Italian integrated system of Research Infrastructures (RIs) in the environmental domain, under the coordination of the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy. One of its main outputs is the ITINERIS HUB, a gateway to the wide range of data, cutting-edge facilities, analytical tools, and services from these RIs, facilitating observation and study of processes in the atmosphere, marine domain, terrestrial biosphere, and geosphere. Italy is in fact actively involved in all major pan-European Environmental Research Infrastructures, and hosts other nationally relevant RIs, demanding for coordinated...

As of October 2025, Italy has officially joined the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), strengthening its engagement in the international landscape of open biodiversity data. Already a member of LifeWatch ERIC through LifeWatch Italy, with the National Research Council (CNR) as the leading entity, Italy has now established its national GBIF node, coordinated by DSSTTA (Department of Earth System Sciences and Environmental Technologies). Ilaria Rosati, already actively involved in LifeWatch Italy, has been appointed Node Manager of the Italian GBIF node. DSSTTA is committed to advancing the understanding of how Earth’s systems, including climate, cryosphere, biodiversity, and related components, are...

The 'Marine SABRES in Fairs' initiative reached Pisa for a new stop dedicated to dialogue, knowledge exchange, and marine ecosystem restoration. The event took place within the third round of stakeholder consultations, organised by HuFoSS together with the University of Pisa. At the Marine SABRES stand, students, researchers, PhD candidates, and stakeholders were invited to discover how marine research connects with everyday life and coastal realities. Through visual materials, videos, and direct interaction with project representatives, visitors explored the objectives and results of Marine SABRES and its contribution to ecosystem-based management. A central focus of the Pisa edition was the...

On 5th January 2026, LifeWatch ERIC's CEO Christos Arvanitidis delivered an online presentation for the 4th Course of the Doctoral Programme in Planetary Health, organised by the University of Lisbon.The 40-minute presentation titled “From Biodiversity to Planetary Health: Enabling Science for Societal Transformation” focused on the link between the course’s holistic approach and the "Crete Declaration" approach. The Crete Declaration is a Declaration of Intent signed between LifeWatch ERIC and a group of Research Infrastructures and European projects and organisations. It takes its name from Heraklion, Crete, where the signing took place in the summer of 2025, during the BEeS...

The RESTORE4Cs project has published two more Policy Briefs that add to the 5 previously published by the consortium: https://www.restore4cs.eu/resources/policy-briefs/. Policy Brief #6 "European Coastal Wetland Indicators: A proposal for monitoring policy processes across space and time", offers a practical approach to track the status, trends, and policy performance of Europe's coastal wetlands. In fact, despite covering less than 0.6% of the European landscape, coastal wetlands provide important benefits to the environment, such as carbon storage, protection from storm, regulation of water flows. They also filter pollutants, and support a diversity of threatened species. In order to protect and preserve...

WoRMS, the World Register of Marine Species, opens again the nominations for the Top Ten Marine Species of 2025, with the objective to highlight to the wider public the discovery of numerous new marine species made every year, and the crucial job of taxonomists. In fact, the release of the list coincides with the World Taxonomist Appreciation Day, 19 March. The 2024 edition winners spanned the tree of life, from worms to isopods to anglerfish (learn more here: https://www.marinespecies.org/worms-top-ten/2024). This year, nominations will be collected via this online form: https://form.vliz.be/en/form/worms-top-ten-2025-nomination. In order to be eligible for nomination, the species must...

LifeWatch Slovenia members Magdalena Nǎpǎruş-Aljančič and Tanja Pipan (Karst Research Institute - ZRC SAZU) co-authored a new, open-access article in BioScience, titled "Patterns and Drivers of Subterranean Biodiversity Hotspots across the Globe". The study maps global subterranean biodiversity hotspots, highlighting the exceptional richness of the Dinaric Karst. In fact, the extreme environment of caves hosts a surprising number of aquatic and terrestrial species that are highly specialised for these habitats: no eyes and pigments, elongated appendages, elaborate extraoptic sensory structures make these species unique in the world, and extremely rare. Starting from recently published lists of such invertebrate and vertebrate cave-limited species, the researchers mapped hotspots of...

Marine SABRES in Fairs will make its next stop in Pisa on 14 January 2026, bringing the project’s results and resources to the University of Pisa. The initiative aims to engage students, researchers, and citizens in exploring how Marine SABRES connects science, policy, and society to protect marine ecosystems and foster a sustainable blue economy. The event will take place within the third round of stakeholder consultations, hosted by the Marine SABRES project and organised by HuFoSS (Hummel Foundation for Sustainable Solutions) and the University of Pisa. The meeting represents an important moment of dialogue with local actors and experts,...

In November 2025 LifeWatch ERIC welcomed its new Chief Technology Officer, Anne Fouilloux, to guide its technological strategy and ensure alignment with global advances in biodiversity and ecosystem research across Europe. In this second part of our two-part interview, we asked her about her vision on how to turn data into impact, and how to break down silos and enable cross-discipline, cross-border collaboration. If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here, where we focused on Anne’s experiences that shaped her work, real-life examples from her previous roles, and how these influence her approach as CTO. Anne, you once...

Researchers from the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and the Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) are tagging sharks in the Belgian part of the North Sea to gain insights on their habits. With the support of LifeWatch Belgium and the European Tracking Network (ETN), data gathered through this work might help guide targeted protection and management actions. By implanting small acoustic transmitters into sharks, researchers are in fact able to track their movements across borders (read this article to see how ETN makes cross-borders science possible). Moreover, they use other techniques such as ultrasound, underwater video systems, and...

LifeWatch Belgium connects researchers in the field of acoustic telemetry through a collaborative network called ETN (The European Tracking Network). ETN allows them to share the outputs of acoustic receivers and follow animal movements from the rivers to the seas, drawing important insights on how marine life links ecosystems in European waters. This network, initially including just a few receivers along the Belgian coast, is now one of Europe's largest monitoring systems, involving more than 600 European researchers who track fish and other aquatic species in order to study their migration, and their movement across borders. Although the Permanent Belgian...

On 25-26 November 2025, LifeWatch ERIC attended the XII Ibero-American Congress on Science and Technology Indicators in Montevideo (Uruguay). Julio Paneque, Principal Software Engineer, represented the Research Infrastructure and presented a tool developed within the framework of the EU-LAC ENERGYTRAN project, in collaboration with other infrastructures and scientific institutions. The tool monitors and assesses the progress of energy transition in EU and LAC countries, by calculating indexes based on publicly available datasets. It offers a transparent framework to track progress toward relevant SDGs, and supports evidence-based policymaking. A highly relevant topic for the congress, which is one of the region's...