BEeS 2026

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The LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference

The BEeS 2026 - Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference will gather researchers, policymakers, and experts to address threats and challenges to biodiversity and ecosystem conservation from an eScience perspective.

BEeS 2026

Welcome to BEeS 2026

LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference (BEeS) is back! This summer, we are pleased to invite you to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for a four-day event, from 7 to 10 July. BEeS is LifeWatch ERIC’s flagship forum for eScience in biodiversity and ecosystem research, emphasising interoperable data, reproducible workflows, and reusable digital services.

LifeWatch Bulgaria hosts the 2026 edition of the conference at the Agricultural University-Plovdiv. Bulgaria joined LifeWatch ERIC in 2022 as one of its eight Distributed Centres. The event also showcases how LifeWatch ERIC services and communities support collaboration across the infrastructure.

BEeS 2026 will bring together scientists, experts, and innovators to explore challenges and emerging opportunities in biodiversity and ecosystem science. Through a series of high-level plenary sessions, the conference will address critical topics including biodiversity conservation and species extinction, ecosystem responses to climate change, the role of agroecology in sustainable systems, and the latest frontiers in eScience technologies.

The programme is complemented by thematic sessions aligned with LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Service Working Groups, focusing on practical methods, workflows, and service-enabled science.

This event promotes dialogue across disciplines and highlights the importance of integrating ecological knowledge, technological innovation, and policy frameworks, acting as a platform to explore collaborative solutions for understanding, protecting, and managing biodiversity. A key aim is to accelerate uptake of decision-relevant evidence products that are transparent, traceable, and comparable across regions.

Registration and the Call for Abstracts are open! Deadline: 15 May.

Timeline

Opening of Call for Abstracts

Closing of Call for Abstracts

Registration deadline for dinner and social event

Deadline to request reduced-fee accommodation for early career researchers

Start of the Conference

End of the Conference

27 February 2026

15 May 2026

7 July 2026

10 July 2026

The conference in numbers

Registrants

Research Infrastructures

Presentations

European Projects

Posters

Training sessions

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.

Fund raising

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

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Cross-Disciplinary Lexicon

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

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

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

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.

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.