The first annual European Research Services on Agroecology Conference was held by AgroServ (a project in which LifeWatch ERIC is partner) from 5–6 June 2023 at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (in-person and online). This first edition of the AgoServ Conference was dedicated to presenting the various agroecological services accessible through AgroServ and the different aspects that shape research in the emerging field of agroecology. To promote and encourage interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to address the agroecological transition, the first call for transnational access to its services was launched during the event. Since the transition towards a sustainable and resilient agricultural system...

The Environmental and Biodiversity Climate Change Lab (EnBiC2-Lab) organised a workshop at the University of Malaga on Friday 2 June 2023, entitled 'A knowledge baseline on Mediterranean forests supported by innovation', to explore how new technologies and innovative methodologies can be combined to improve sustainable forest management in the region. LifeWatch ERIC is a key partner and that is why Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch CEO, spoke in his presentation about the integration of new technologies, citizen science data and national inventories to prioritize key areas for conservation and restoration. Innovative methods like Satellite Remote Sensing, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data allow...

The ANERIS consortium, whose vision is to protect marine and coastal biodiversity through technological and scientific innovation, held a workshop at the InnocOcean Campus of the Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend, Belgium, 30-31 May 2023. The purpose of the two days was to explore the available genomic workflows currently used by the participating ERICs and associated partners, and to share experiences. Officially launched under the Horizon Europe programme on 21 March this year, ANERIS - whose 25 project partners from 13 different countries include LifeWatch ERIC - is coordinated by the Spanish Institut de Ciènces del Mar. At a time...

LifeWatch ERIC and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) are meeting from 30 May to 2 June, 2023, to support the Kunming-Montreal package of decisions adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, approved at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, in December 2022.

Micro-CTvlab and MedOBIS Repository were present at the plenary meeting of the MAPWORMS project in Lecce, on 15-16 May 2023. MAPWORMS is a Horizon Europe project which aims to propose robots that are inspired by simplified forms of marine Annelida, able to perform tasks in response to environmental stimuli, thus adapting to the working environment with a shape-morphing strategy with unique features in terms of powering and eco-friendliness. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is being used to visualize the morphological and anatomical features of the annelids. These data will also be used to create a virtual gallery in the Micro-CTvlab, a virtual...

The LifeWatch ERIC family is meeting again, for the first time in four years, at the Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference in Seville, Spain, this 22-24 May 2023. Hosted by the University of Seville, not far from LifeWatch ERIC’s headquarters, the bustling reunion allows 150 participants from LifeWatch ERIC, its National Nodes, and the broader biodiversity and ecosystem research community to present their work in person. The enthusiasm is tangible, and LifeWatch ERIC is glad to announce a rich programme, featuring 65 presentations from 13 different countries. During those three days, presenters guide us through the advanced, transdisciplinary and challenging...

On 11 May, LifeWatch ERIC hosted, at its ICT Core in Seville, the second regional workshop of the European project ALL-Ready: "Accelerating Agroecology Transition: Your potential role and benefits of contributing to a European network of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures". LifeWatch ERIC is is one of the main partners in this highly strategically relevant project. Its Agroecology team, led by José Manuel Ávila, Daniel Caro and Iria Soto, coordinated the morning session of the workshop together with Gerald Schwarz (Thünen Institute), Isidora Stojacic (BioSense Institute), Ophélie Bonnet (INRAE), Isabelle Couture (ENoLL - European Network of Living Labs), Jo Bijttebier and Sylvie...

On 3–5 May, LifeWatch ERIC participated in the EOSC Future General Assembly and Project Meeting, held in Seville, Spain. The event was hosted by LifeWatch ERIC in Casa de la Ciencia, where all the entities who are the backbone of EOSC Future gathered. Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC CEO, is very pleased with the level of participation and cooperation shown in the various sessions of this meeting: "Our assessment is very positive and increases expectations regarding the achievement of the objectives for the development of this platform". On the first day of the Meeting, LifeWatch ERIC's CEO, Christos Arvanitidis, opened the first session...

The LifeWatch ERIC ICT-Core held an extensive working meeting at their headquarters in the Cartuja Science and Technology Park in Seville, with Octavi Quintana, Director of PRIMA Foundation.PRIMA’s Director left an important legacy as Director of "European Research Area", Directorate-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission while fostering the development of Research Infrastructures and policies. LifeWatch ERIC and PRIMA – The Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area – are exploring collaboration opportunities with the intention of extending good practices and use of e-research tools in Mediterranean countries.The aim of the PRIMA Foundation is to build...

­The Agricultural University-Plovdiv (AUP, Coordinator of LifeWatch Bulgaria) and the Faculty of Plant Protection and Agroecology in partnership with LifeWatch ERIC; the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts "Prof. Asen Diamandiev" – Plovdiv (AMTII); the student councils at the AUP and AMTII; the Plovdiv Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water (RIEW); the Green Balkans Association (Stara Zagora, LifeWatch Bulgaria partner); and the Society of Animalists, Florists and Scientific Illustrators (DAFNI), celebrated Earth Day on 22 April with a variety of educational and creative activities held at the AUP. Special guests of the Earth Day event were students from the local area, who...

On 24–25 April, LifeWatch ERIC participated in the working groups of the EU-LAC Knowledge Forum, held in Montevideo, Uruguay. The event was organised by the EU-LAC International Foundation, with the Uruguayan International Cooperation Agency (AUCI) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) as main partners. Its purpose was to generate input to feed the agenda of the high authorities of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean at the Summit of Heads of State and Government in the field of access to knowledge, higher education, and science, technology, and innovation. This CELAC-EU Summit of Heads of State...

The planet is changing rapidly; to understand and forecast how ecosystems are affected by global change, ecology should become a predictive science. LifeWatch Netherlands is an integral part of ambitious new project LTER–LIFE, starting summer 2023, in which it will contribute virtual laboratories to answer fundamental questions on the functioning and resilience of ecosystems. LTER-LIFE is a Large-Scale Research Infrastructure in the making, one of the nine projects awarded within the Dutch national roadmap for large-scale reseach infrastructre. It will provide a state-of-the-art e-infrastructure to study and predict how changes in climate and other human-induced pressures affect ecosystems and biodiversity,...

Offshore wind farms are built at a high rate in European waters as part of the green transition, taking up marine space that is often not available anymore to other users such as the fisheries sector. However, knowledge on the ecological effects of wind farms on commercial flatfish was lacking. Understanding the ecological impacts of an offshore wind farm on a fish species requires knowledge on its movements within and its association to the wind farm area. Therefore, a tagging study making use of an acoustic receiver network was carried out in the Belwind wind farm (Belgium), by PhD student...

We are excited to announce the upcoming 2nd ALL-READY Regional Workshop, entitled "Accelerating the Agroecology Transition: Your potential role and benefits of contributing to a European Network of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures". This interactive discussion session will take place on 11 May 2023, at the LifeWatch ERIC ICT-Core premises in Seville, Spain, and will also be available online as a hybrid event. The workshop is organised by LifeWatch ERIC, Thünen Institute and INRAE as part of the ALL-Ready project, and will focus on exploring the potential of a European Network of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures to enable the transition towards...

The FAIR-IMPACT project has just launched the first of three Open Calls for Support, offering two defined support actions designed to enhance the FAIRness of data, semantic artefacts and data-related services.  Support action #1: FAIRness assessment challenge. More harmonised use of semantic artefacts such as ontologies, terminologies, taxonomies, thesauri, vocabularies, metadata schemas and standards is a key element to achieving a high level of FAIRness. However, it can often be difficult to find and use semantic artefacts as they themselves are not always FAIR. This targeted support action will help a cohort of dataset providers or semantic artefact developers to self-assess...