Team

Find out more about the team behind LifeWatch ERIC.

LifeWatch ERIC employs an international staff with wide-ranging expertise and multidisciplinary skills. Staff members, roles and contact details are displayed below.

Are you interested in joining the team? Click here to browse our job opportunities.

All153Quality Assurance & Risk Management2Executive Board6Statutory Seat15ICT Core21Service Centre19VLIC7Administration & Finance9Communication6Projects16HR1ICT24Scientific Networking3Training4
 
Christos  Arvanitidis

Chief Executive Officer

Anne Fouilloux

Chief Technology Officer

Lucas de Moncuit

Chief Financial Officer

Alberto Basset

Interim Director of Service Centre

Peter H. van Tienderen

Interim Director of VLab & Innovation Centre

Antonio José Sáenz Albanés

Director of ICT-Core

Giovanna Caputi Iambrenghi

General Assembly & Research Infrastructure Committee Support

Cristina Huertas-Olivares

Senior Scientific Officer & Executive Board Support

Maite Irazábal Plá

Scientific Coordination Support

Rocío Mantero Cejudo

Quality & Project Engineer

María Pérez Fernández

Global Project Manager

Ana Bajandas

Project Manager

Javier Saenz Reina

Finance & Accounting Officer

Elena Delgado Rivera

People & Culture Manager

Hooi Sung Lim

Quality Assurance & Risk Management Officer

Javier Lopez Torres

Procurement, Legal and Institutional Relations Officer

Francisco Manuel Sanchez Cano

e-Infrastructure Resource Integration Coordinator

Joaquin Lopez Lerida

Data e-Science, Blockchain and European Projects Officer

Adrian Guerrero Bermudez

Hybrid Cloud Data Centre & Software Systems Operation Manager

Emilio Luis Jara Fontacaba

Distributed e-Infrastructure Control & Network Systems Manager

Julio Paneque

Principal Software Engineer

Pablo Santos Ortiz

Full Stack Developer

Salvador J. Fernández Bejarano

Data Management Specialist

Andrea Ros Candeira

Data Management Specialist

Jorge Osman

Scientific Project Manager

José Luis Fernández Rueda

Full Stack Developer

José Antonio Zaíño Rodríguez

Full Stack Developer

Jose Manuel Avila Castuera

Senior Scientific Manager

Iria Soto Embodas

Senior Scientific Manager

Ana Mellado Garcia

Senior Scientific Manager

Mariela Pino García

ICT Core Project Manager

Javier Saura Rascón

Project Manager

Daniel Capitán

Project Manager

Eduardo García Bendito

Scientific Data Specialist

Wouter Plouvier

Scientific Data Specialist

Irene Matteo

Administrative Assistant

Eleonora Romano

Administrative Officer

Marina López Villalobos

Project Management Assistant

Cosimo Vallo

Training Coordinator

Eleonora Parisi

EU Project Training Officer

Sara Montinaro

Chief Communication Officer

Mario Ciotti

EU Projects Training Specialist

Laura Caciagli

Science Communication Specialist

Cristina Mancarella

Digital Communication Officer

Eleonora Schulze-Battmann

Visual Communication Specialist & Project Manager

Madeira Scauri

EU Project Communication Officer

Sofía Sánchez Seda

Communication and Internationalisation Project Manager

Vanessa Marrocco

EU Project Scientific Community Networking Officer

Ant Türkmen

Scientific Community Networking Officer

Lucia Vaira

Service Centre ICT Coordinator

Eftychia Tzafesta

EU Project Data Science Specialist

Majid Fiaz

Web Developer

Pierluigi Calasso

Help Desk Technician

Nikos Minadakis

Semantic Engineer

Houda Ben Salah

Data Scientist

Zhiming Zhao

VLIC Technical Manager

Gabriel   Pelouze

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

Spiros Koulouzis

Virtual Research Environment Developer

Koen Greuell

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

Quan Pan

R&D Engineer for Cloud-based Virtual Research Environment

Jacco Konijn

Project Manager

Statutory Seat

Christos Arvanitidis

Christos
Arvanitidis


Chief Executive Officer


Executive Board

Elena Delgado

Elena
Delgado Rivera


People & Culture Manager



María Pérez

María
Pérez Fernández


Project Administrative Coordinator



lucas

Lucas
de Moncuit


Chief Financial Officer


Executive Board

huertas_rz

Cristina
Huertas-Olivares


International Initiatives & Projects Manager


saenz_reina_rz

Javier
Saenz Reina


Finance Officer



Ana Bajandas

Ana
Bajandas


Project Manager for
EU-funded Projects



Hooi Sung LIM

Hooi Sung
Lim


Quality Assurance & Risk Management Officer


caputi_rz

Giovanna
Caputi Iambrenghi


National Nodes Operations
Manager



mantero_rz

Rocío
Mantero Cejudo


Quality and Project Engineer



ICT-Core

avila_rz

José Manuel
Ávila-Castuera


Agroecology Coordinator



Joaquin Lopez

Joaquín
López Lerida


Data e-Science Management Plan & BlockChain Officer


Mariela-Pino

Mariela
Pino García


Data Analytics Project Manager



pablo

Pablo
Santos Ortiz


Full Stack Developer



Adrian Guerrero

Adrián
Guerrero Bermúdez


Hybrid Cloud Datacentre Systems & Operations Manager


lopeztorres_rz

Javier
López-Torres


Procurement & Institutional Relationship Officer


Xavier Rotllan-Puig

Xavier
Rotllan-Puig


Data Management
Specialist



Javier Saura PhotoLW

Javier
Saura Rascon


Project Executive Assistant



Maite Irazábal Plá

Maite
Irazábal Plá


EU-LAC Fundraising, Networking & Projects Manager


Ana Mellado

Ana
Mellado García


Project Executive Coordinator



saenz_albanes_rs

Antonio José
Sáenz Albanés


e-Infrastructure Operations
Coordinator



Iria Soto

Iria
Soto Embodas


Agroecology Project Manager



Emilio Jara

Emilio Luis
Jara Fontacaba


Distributed e-Infrastructure Control & Network Systems Manager

Julio_Paneque

Julio
Paneque


Intelligent Systems, Robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & HAPS Expert

cano_rz

Francisco Manuel
Sánchez Cano


e-Infrastructure Resource Integration Coordinator


Service Centre

Alberto Basset

Alberto
Basset


Interim Director of Service Centre


Executive Board

Sara Montinaro

Sara
Montinaro


Chief Communication Officer



IMG_6323

Eleonora
Romano


Administrative Officer



Laura Caciagli

Laura
Caciagli


Science Communication Specialist



Eleonora Parisi

Eleonora
Parisi


EU Project Training Officer



Lucia_ridim

Lucia
Vaira


Data and Service Architect



Cristina Mancarella

Cristina
Mancarella


Digital Communication Officer



efh_20240708161028_296147_0e326_62fe1

Parham
Ramezani


Knowledge Engineer - ICT Ontology Developer


CosimoVallo

Cosimo
Vallo


Training Officer



Vanessa Marrocco

Vanessa
Marrocco


EU Project Scientific Community Networking Officer


Madeira Scauri

Madeira
Scauri


EU Project Communication Officer



Irene Matteo

Irene
Matteo


Administrative Assistant


Turkmen Profil

Ant
Türkmen


Scientific Community Networking Officer


Virtual Laboratory & Innovations Centre

peter

Peter H.
van Tienderen


Interim Director of VLIC


Executive Board

portrait

Koen
Greuell


Developer for Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments


Jacco_2.jpg

Jacco
Konijn


Project Manager



gabriel pelouze

Gabriel
Pelouze


Virtual Research Environment Developer


ZhimingZhao20

Zhiming
Zhao


VLIC Technical Manager



Spiros Koulouzis

Spiros
Koulouzis


Virtual Research Environment Developer


Identify community needs and promote FAIR data exchange for agroecology

  • End of 2027
    • Identify the demand from researchers and living labs for interoperable indicators, reproducible workflows, and decision-support tools that connect biophysical, ecological and socio-economic dimensions.

Strengthen collaboration and impact

  • Permanent activity

    • Coordinate collaboration among Distributed Centres, Living Labs and research communities to support the development of agroecology services within LifeWatch ERIC;

  • End of 2027

    • Improve comparability of research outputs, accelerate adoption of services, and foster co-created solutions for researchers, farmers, advisors and policy makers.

  • Permanent activity

    • Facilitate joint initiatives, project proposals and knowledge exchange to ensure sustained service development and long-term impact.

Support the development of digital agroecology services

  • June 2026

    • Deployment of EDDAn​ data space for Agrifood sector in Andalusia; Adaptation of TITAN workflow platform and related KHAOS tools to serve as a reproducible, trustworthy analysis layer within EDDAn Data Space;

  • September 2026

    • An AGROSERV TransNationalAccess project is currently underway by LifeWatch ERIC and AnaEE ERIC to develop a VREfA (Virtual Research Environment for Agroecology). The project, led by UPO, will support the biophysical analysis of agroecosystems that are transitioning to agroecological management practices.

Advance agroecological research across scales

  • Permanent activity

    • Increase knowledge on ecological processes in agroecosystems, considering both relevant spatial scales and long-term changes.

  • End of 2027

    • Promote the advancement of Landscape Agroecology, exploring new ways of functional integration of different land and livestock uses to increase territorial efficiency and generate landscape mosaics well-endowed with biodiversity and ecosystem services.

  • End of 2027

    • Contribute to the design of agroecological food systems at local and bioregional levels to meet population food demands.

  • End of 2028

    • Research on the contribution of agroecological management to combating climate emergencies, both in terms of mitigation (sequestration) and adaptation to adverse climatic conditions at both farm and landscape level.

Community engagement and application integration

  • March–June 2026​
    • stakeholder mapping and engagement strategy;
    • first open webinar.
  • July 2026–December 2027​
    • workshops, training activities, and industry–academia roundtables;
    • co-development of application-oriented pilot studies.
  • 2028​
    • consolidation of collaborations, cross-infrastructure initiatives, and dissemination of impact- oriented outputs.

Bioinformatics services and infrastructure

  • March–September 2026​
    • assessment of computational needs;
    • deployment of Virtual Machines and Galaxy Instances;
    • integration of workflows for eDNA, DNA metabarcoding, and shotgun metagenomics.
  • October 2026–June 2027​
    • release and optimization of reproducible workflows;
    • scaling of infrastructure;
    • integration of ML/AI tools for biodiversity analyses.

Experimental design and extraction protocols

  • March–June 2026​
    • Kick-off meeting;
    • collection of use cases;
    • mapping of existing experimental designs and nucleic acid extraction protocols.
  • July–December 2026
    • Comparative evaluation of sampling strategies and sequencing approaches;
    • assessment of extraction methods across environmental matrices;
    • drafting of best-practice guidelines.
  • January–April 2027
    • Pilot validation, community feedback, and release of Version 1.0 standardised guidelines.

Integrated Data-to-Model Workflows

  • End of December 2026 – At least 5 workflows for data-model integration developed and published
  • End of February 2027 – At least 5 workflows for policy-relevant outputs developed and published

Environmental Data Mapping

  • End of May 2026 – Core environmental data mapped as a list
  • End of June 2026 – Cross-comparison with existing LifeWatch catalogue done

Cross-Disciplinary Lexicon

  • End of April 2026 – Lexicon of standardised terminology
  • End of May 2026 – Publication submitted

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).

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.

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.

Mapping Requirements and Gap Analysis

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

Development of VREs for Ecosystem Simulation (2026)

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

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.

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.

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.

Fund raising

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

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”.

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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.