A new framework for the sustainable management of European Research Infrastructures

Biodiversity Data Journal paper

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 paper proposes an eleven-tenet framework for the integrated, evolving and sustainable management of European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs). Building on previous tenet-based approaches, the framework brings together scientific, technological, economic, administrative, political, legal, societal, environmental, ethical, cultural and communication dimensions within a single structure. A new, eleventh tenet focuses on enabling scientific excellence, recognising that while scientific excellence is generated by the research communities using an infrastructure, ERICs play a crucial role in enabling it through high-quality data, services and collaborative environments.

The framework is intended as a tool to support strategic reflection, identify potential gaps and challenges, and promote more integrated and adaptive approaches to the long-term management and sustainability of ERICs. While developed in the European context, the authors highlight that many of the challenges addressed are relevant to Research Infrastructures more broadly. The paper is the result of a collaborative effort involving researchers and experts from several European and international institutions, including LifeWatch ERIC. The article is available as open access in the Biodiversity Data Journal: https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/212181.

Wiring computational reproducibility into everyday research: REWIRE project kicks off in Athens

Source: REWIRE press release
More 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 publishing do not routinely ask for this information, so it often goes unrecorded. By the time somebody tries to reproduce the work, important parts of the record may already be lost.

REWIRE sets out to change that. Rather than developing another set of tools, REWIRE brings together three existing approaches, each addressing a different stage of the research process: planning, execution and publication. The aim is to embed them into normal research workflows so that the information needed for reproducibility is captured as the work happens, rather than reconstructed afterwards.
The project will test this approach in real organisations, including national research funders, research infrastructures, research-performing organisations and a scientific publishing platform. Just as importantly, it will document what organisations need to put these practices in place, and what it takes for them to last.

Two days in Athens
On 17–18 September 2026, the twelve project partners and eight pilot organisations met in Athens, with additional colleagues joining online, for the REWIRE kick-off.

Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC Chief Executive Officer, and Joaquin Lopez Lerida, Data e-Science, Blockchain and European Projects Officer at LW ERIC ICT-Core, joined the meeting. LifeWatch ERIC is one of the eight organisations (pilots) that will put the REWIRE interventions into practice in their own institutional settings, adopting the interventions that make sense for its role and existing workflows; what LW ERIC learns will feed into the REWIRE BLUEPRINTS: an open record of what organisations tried, how they implemented it and what worked in practice.

“If you cannot repeat, why believe the results?” asked Professor Yannis Ioannidis of Athena Research Center, which coordinates REWIRE, in his opening remarks. In computational research, he argued, repeating a result is often technically possible. The harder problem is making reproducibility part of routine practice.

During the two-day hybrid event, project partners established the foundations for collaboration, reviewed the project objectives and coordinated the activities that will support computational reproducibility across research practice, policy and infrastructure. The meeting also introduced REWIRE’s implementation pathways, reproducibility workflows, training programme, pilot activities and plans for building a cross-sectoral community.
For more information, read the official press release.

About the project
REWIRE is a Horizon Europe project making computational reproducibility a practical, everyday part of research across Europe.
REWIRE works with pilot organisations across Europe to deploy reproducibility interventions at three points of the research workflow — planning, executing and publishing — and captures the evidence of what works. The results become reusable blueprints, training and a follower network, so other organisations can adopt the same practices without starting from scratch.
REWIRE runs from September 2026 to August 2029 and is coordinated by Athena Research Center.

Funded by the European Union under grant agreement No 101287431. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Picture taken from LinkedIn

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 interoperable EOSC Nodes covering environmental sciences, social sciences and humanities, life sciences, high-energy physics, scholarly communication and e-infrastructures. Together, these Nodes will form a distributed EOSC Mesh Hub, offering 25 federating capabilities to help researchers discover, access, process and reuse data, software, workflows and other research outputs across organisational and national boundaries.
LifeWatch ERIC is involved in WP3 activities, supporting the planning, set-up, integration and delivery of Nodes into the EOSC Federation.
The project will provide a continuum of federated data, compute and storage resources, supported by services for authentication, cataloguing, federated search, workflow management, secure processing of sensitive data, data transfer, provenance and service monitoring. This will make it easier for research communities to combine resources from different infrastructures and run reproducible, cross-border workflows.
“EOSC Mesh will turn federation into a practical experience for researchers and infrastructure providers,” said Diego Scardaci, EGI Foundation (project coordinator). “By connecting independent Nodes through shared services, technical expertise and coordinated support, we can make European research resources easier to find, access and reuse.”
The project will demonstrate the value of the EOSC Mesh Hub through seven scientific use cases, including AI model validation on sensitive health data, cross-Node particle-physics workflows, environmental monitoring, analysis of volcanic eruptions, ocean-risk prevention and the discovery of historical newspaper data. EOSC Mesh will also support new providers and potential Node operators through training, open calls, technical assistance and a dedicated Node Operator Framework.
EOSC Mesh will work closely with the EOSC Partnership, the EOSC EU Node, other EOSC Nodes and related European initiatives. Its results will help lower the barriers for future organisations wishing to join the EOSC Federation.
For more information, visit the project website.


Picture from LinkedIn

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 their Work Package plans and received guidance from Project Officer Benoit Pereira and Policy Officer Jelena Vidović of DG AGRI. The consortium also visited two potential sites for the Birmingham Living Lab, where participants discussed the challenges of post-industrial soils and ways to involve local communities.
REGENSOILL is built around five Living Labs: Birmingham (United Kingdom), Budapest (Hungary), Lille Metropole (France), Upper Silesia (Poland) and a cross-border Baltic cluster covering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They will bring together scientists, local authorities, businesses, landowners and communities to co-create, test and demonstrate a toolkit of scientifically validated bioremediation solutions. Beyond restoring degraded soils, the project aims to reduce exposure to historical pollution, boost urban biodiversity, improve stormwater management, combat heat islands and accelerate the reuse of brownfield sites without encroaching on new natural areas.
LifeWatch ERIC’s role
In REGENSOILL, LifeWatch ERIC leads two tasks in Work Package 6: the development of predictive models and a simulation engine, and the design and development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the remediation and green redevelopment of brownfields. Built on digital twins of the sites, the system will simulate contaminant behaviour, soil health recovery and biodiversity under different nature-based solutions, such as phytoremediation or biochar and compost amendments.
AI methods will generate high-quality synthetic data to address data sparsity, stress-test workflows and validate models, making the DSS more reliable and scalable across sites and environmental conditions. The models will then be calibrated with field data from the Living Labs, and the results presented through interactive maps and scenario comparisons for planners, landowners and citizens. LifeWatch ERIC will also curate the soil biodiversity data collected across the Living Labs, making it openly accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Find out more at: regensoill.eu

UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst: A New Global Platform for Exploration, Research, and Protection

International Day of Caves and Karst

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 Day particularly relevant to the LifeWatch ERIC community, where biodiversity research, long-term observation, data integration and the study of specialised habitats are central themes. Subterranean ecosystems are especially vulnerable to environmental change, pollution, changes in groundwater conditions, land use and other human pressures. Better knowledge of these environments is therefore essential not only for understanding their exceptional biodiversity, but also for their effective conservation.

The initiative for the International Day originated within the International Union of Speleology (UIS) and grew out of the successful International Year of Caves and Karst 2021–2022. The process was led by Nadja Zupan Hajna of the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU, who, as UIS President from 2022, made formal UNESCO recognition of caves and karst one of the main goals of her mandate and coordinated the preparation of the proposal, its scientific justification and the building of broad international support. The Republic of Slovenia subsequently submitted the UIS proposal through the formal UNESCO procedure. The initiative ultimately received wide international support and established 13 September as an annual day dedicated to caves and karst.

The first global celebration of the UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst took place in Postojna, Slovenia, from 10 to 13 September 2026. It was jointly organised by the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU and the International Union of Speleology (UIS), with the support and cooperation of the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO and Slovenian partner institutions. The events were held under the patronage of UNESCO and the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Nataša Pirc Musar, who personally attended the central ceremony in Postojna Cave and addressed the participants.

At the heart of the programme was the international scientific conference “Explore, Understand and Protect: Towards Sustainable Management of Caves and Karst”, which brought together around 160 participants from 35 countries on five continents. Scientific sessions addressed biodiversity and geodiversity, cave and karst protection, groundwater management, climate change, pollution, geohazards, new research technologies, education and sustainable management. The central celebration in Postojna Cave brought together participants and invited guests from 43 countries.

The first celebration in Postojna was only the beginning. The aim is for 13 September to become an annual global opportunity to explore, understand and protect caves and karst, connecting researchers, cavers, conservationists, educators, local communities and decision makers. For biodiversity initiatives such as LifeWatch ERIC, the IDCK also offers an important opportunity to make the often-invisible diversity of subterranean ecosystems more visible and to strengthen cooperation between research, monitoring and conservation.

Text by Nadja Zupan Hajna, Group picture by Valter Leban, taken during the first global celebration of the UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst in Postojna, Slovenia.
More info and gallery: https://izrkp.zrc-sazu.si/en/novice/the-main-ceremony-marking-the-first-celebration-of-unesco-international-day-of-caves-and

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, opening the MEDCONNECT kick-off meeting on 29-30 September. The launch event included an institutional welcome, a presentation of MEDCONNECT, high-level diplomatic remarks by Ambassadors and representatives of Mediterranean countries participating in the project.
The two-day meeting was the first opportunity to bring the full partnership around the same table, align priorities and turn the project architecture into a shared programme of action.

The meeting was attended by Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC Chief Executive Officer, and Cristina Huertas-Olivares, Senior Scientific Officer at LifeWatch ERIC Statutory Seat.
LifeWatch ERIC leads WP9 “Innovation Ecosystem Capacity Building” and will be involved in: building and strengthening innovation ecosystems across the three Regional Hubs; enabling collaboration with 5-helix stakeholders and youth to drive investment and innovative solutions uptake; enhancing stakeholders’ capacities to adopt and scale innovations through targeted training; empowering off-takers to integrate innovations sustainably into their operations and services; fostering continuous multi-stakeholder collaboration to ensure solutions are user-driven to guarantee sustainable basin socio-economic development.

Funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe and coordinated by the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), MEDCONNECT brings together 20 partners across the Mediterranean Basin. Over three years, the project will work through 14 national hubs and three regional living lab systems in Croatia, Cyprus and Spain, where 15 innovative solutions will be tested and refined under real coastal conditions. MEDCONNECT will also support access to public and private investment, digital monitoring, behavioural change and local capacity building, with the goal of scaling validated solutions and creating a lasting Mediterranean innovation ecosystem.

“MEDCONNECT marks more than the formal start of a European project: it is the beginning of a shared ambition for the Mediterranean,” said Gotelenne Piaton, MEDCONNECT Project Coordinator at CMMI. “Our goal is to connect actors across the basin, bring innovative solutions into real-world environments and create the conditions for them to be replicated and scaled.”

The two-day kick-off meeting brought together partners from more than 14 countries across the Mediterranean Basin, alongside representatives of CINEA and DG MARE, and concluded with a visit to the Port of Limassol and EUROGATE Container Terminal.

About MEDCONNECT
MEDCONNECT – Mediterranean Lighthouse Connectivity Platform for Scaling Up Solutions and Regional Partnerships – is the Mediterranean Lighthouse of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”. Funded by Horizon Europe and coordinated by the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), the three-year project brings together 20 partners from across the Mediterranean and Europe to accelerate the restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems and the transition to a climate-neutral, competitive blue economy. Working through national hubs and three regional living lab systems in Croatia, Cyprus and Spain, MEDCONNECT will refine and demonstrate 15 innovative solutions under real coastal conditions, mobilise public and private investment, deploy digital monitoring and promote behavioural change.
Its goal is to establish a permanent Mediterranean innovation ecosystem that turns validated solutions into financed deployments aligned with the Mission’s 2030 objectives.

Follow MEDCONNECT
Website: https://medconnect-lighthouse.eu
LinkedIn: @medconnect-eu | Instagram: @medconnect_eu

MEDCONNECT is part of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” and is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101296089. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.