Who We Are

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LifeWatch ERIC is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium providing e-Science research facilities to scientists investigating biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in order to support society in addressing key planetary challenges.
LifeWatch ERIC was established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium by the European Commission in 2017.

Click here to read about Research Infrastructures and here to learn more about ERICs.

See all the other members of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC Landscape) here.

Vision

The vision behind LifeWatch ERIC is to become the Research Infrastructure providing access to the world’s biodiversity content, services and communities in one click.

Mission

LifeWatch ERIC aims to accelerate the research efforts of the scientific community by delivering a European state-of-the-art e-Science Research Infrastructure on biodiversity and ecosystem research: a Digital Twin which

provides access to, and support for, key scientific services by applying cutting-edge ICT technology,
enables reproducible analytics,
is co-designed and co-created with the user communities and
is tuned with the needs for research that provides key insights for society, in particular science-based policy.

Impacts & perspectives

As a provider of e-Science facilities for the European Research Area, LifeWatch ERIC represents a significant step forward, empowering users and stakeholders as they seek to address societal challenges linked to climate change and resource efficiency, food security and agriculture, sustainable development and energy supply, security and health.

LifeWatch ERIC is committed to:

Reaching the computers of all scientists, ecosystem managers & decision makers, and involving citizens in science

Providing VREs, vLabs & Big Data paradigm-based tools to conduct cutting-edge research

Boosting technological innovation, continuously improving the performance of our VREs, opening up new fields for socio-economic development

Establishing synergies with various national and regional stakeholders, particularly in respect to RIS3

Promoting democracy and creativity in science.

Our Story

2006-2010

2011-2017

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2006-2010

Preparatory phase

LifeWatch enters the 2006 ESFRI Roadmap
FP7 LifeWatch

2011-2017

Transition Phase

Signature of a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate for the start of LifeWatch
Organisation of the first Inter-ministerial meeting
Organisation of five Operational meetings
Inaugurations of the Statutory Seat (Seville, Spain) and Service Centre (Lecce, Italy)

2017

1st Implementation Period

Establishment of LifeWatch ERIC by the European Union

2018

1st Implementation Period

Management & governance gathering speed
Establishment of the three Common Facilities Offices
Recruitment of the first units of personnel
Launch of LifeWatch ERIC Website
Organisation of ERIC Forum in Seville

2019

1st Implementation Period

Three new EU funded Projects: ENVRI-FAIR, Resinfra EU-LAC, ERIC Forum
First Scientific Community Meeting
First National Support Networks Meeting
Portugal joins LifeWatch ERIC
Start of LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative (IJI)
Prototypes of LifeBlock & Tesseract
EcoPortal
Co-organisation of Biodiversity Next Conference

2020

1st Implementation Period

One new EU project funded: ALL-Ready
Implementation of LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative (IJI)
First release of LifeWatch ERIC Tesseract, LifeBlock and Metadata catalogue
Initiation of the preparations for the next five-year period
Expansion of dialogue and fostering of collaboration with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations and Networks, and Stakeholders

2021

1st Implementation Period

Admit Bulgaria as the eighth EU Member State of LifeWatch ERIC
Continue its participation in 4 ongoing and 10 new projects
Grow by 45,4%, with a total human potential of 33 employees
Bring the prototype of the Infrastructure up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6
Deliver 6 workflows at an operationally tested stage for LifeWatch ERIC IJI
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks

2022

2nd Implementation Period

Launch of new LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan 2022-2026
Update of the Internal Joint Initiative on Non-Indigenous Invasive Species
Development of LifeBlock and dockerisation of tools such as Jupyter Notebook
Consolidate its position in the EU Research Area, participating in 15 Horizon and 6 ERDF projects
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks

2023

2nd Implementation Period

First release of MyLifeWatch, personalised space for researchers to manage projects, collaborations, and access specialised tools
Upgrade of LifeBlock and NaaVRE services
Increase of computing capacity
First LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity and Ecosystem e-Science Conference (BEeS)
Launch of new Community Platform and consolidation of LifeWatching Science Channel
Consolidate its position in the EU Research Area, participating in 21 Horizon and 6 ERDF projects
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks

Policy Relevance and Uptake

End of May 2026 – Policy-brief to demonstrate the application of habitat-based mapping in supporting EU strategies (e.g., Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Law).

Mapping user requirements

End of January 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines addressing ecological responses to climate change;
February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.

Greece

The Greek National Distributed Centre is funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology and is coordinated by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, in conjunction with 47 associated partner institutions.

To know more about how Greece contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Italy

The Italian National Distributed Centre is led and managed by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and is coordinated by a Joint Research Unit, currently comprising 35 members. Moreover, Italy hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Service Centre.

To know more about how Italy contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Netherlands

The Dutch National Distributed Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. Moreover, The Netherlands hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Virtual Laboratory and Innovation Centre.

To know more about how The Netherlands contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Portugal

The Portuguese National Distributed Centre is managed by PORBIOTA, the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity. Led by BIOPOLIS/CIBIO-InBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, PORBIOTA connects the principal Portuguese research institutions working in biodiversity.

To know more about how Portugal contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Slovenia

The Slovenian National Distributed Centre is led by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). It focuses on the development of technological solutions in the field of biodiversity and socio-ecosystem research.

To know more about how Slovenia contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Spain

The Spanish National Distributed Centre is supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (Ministry for Ecological Transition-MITECO). Moreover, Spain is the hosting Member State of LifeWatch ERIC, the location of its Statutory Seat & ICT e-Infrastructure Technical Office (LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities).

To know more about how Spain contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian National Distributed Centre is represented by the Agricultural University-Plovdiv.

To know more about how Bulgaria contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Implementing services

End of January 2025 – Internal distribution of a questionnaire on the most used/relevant model resources in the WG member research activity;
February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.

Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building

End of December 2025 – Create a shared repository of guidance documents, tools, templates, and data resources accessible to WG members and broader communities.

Organising WG workshops and conferences

End of January 2025 – Setting priority research lines and contributions to the BEeS 2025 LifeWatch Conference for the session on the “Ecological responses to climate change”;
March/April 2025 (TBD) – Workshop ‘Ecological modelling and eco-informatics to address functional responses of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate change’ co-organised with the University of Salento;
30 June – 3 July 2025 – Participation to LifeWatch 2025 BEeS Conference on “Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis”.

Fund raising

End of January 2025 – Establishing a WG Committee on scouting project application opportunities and fundraising.

Meetings, Webinars, International Conferences & Networking (2025/2026)

Organising and participating at discussions on emerging technologies in biodiversity monitoring;
Organising webinars on machine learning, eDNA analysis, and automated data collection;
Fostering collaboration between researchers, technologists, and decision-makers.

Collaborative Research & Case Studies (2025/2026)

Conducting pilot projects to test new monitoring methods;
Publishing scientific and popular science papers and reports on advancements in biodiversity assessment.

Data Standardisation & FAIR Principles Implementation (2025/2026)

Developing best practices for data curation and sharing;
Ensuring that biodiversity data aligns with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) standards.

Development of VREs for Ecosystem Simulation (2026)

Creating virtual models of ecosystems to predict environmental changes;
Enhancing conservation strategies through AI-driven simulations.

Mapping Requirements and Gap Analysis

End of December 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines Ecosystem services mapping.

Methodological Alignment and Innovation

End of January 2026 – Online working table on mapping standards, classification systems, and indicators across members;
End of January 2026 – Catalogue of advanced techniques (e.g., remote sensing, GIS modelling, and machine learning) for scalable, habitat-based ecosystem service mapping;
End December 2026 – Methodological framework to support methodological innovation through joint development and testing of mapping approaches, especially linking ecosystem service supply and demand.

Belgium

The Belgian National Distributed Centre makes varied and complementary in-kind contributions to LifeWatch ERIC. These are implemented in the form of long-lasting projects by various research centres and universities distributed throughout the country and supported by each respective political authority.

To know more about how Belgium contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.