ZEEKERWETEN

Zeekerweten

Belgian Coast, Belgium, 8 May 2022.

The Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), coordinator of the LifeWatch Belgium consortium, is organising – together with Natuurpunt, SciVil, Iedereen Wetenschapper and EOS Magazine and many other organisations – the first citizen science festival of the Belgian coast: ZEEKERWETEN. It is a LifeWatch Belgium initiative.

During this open-air event, citizens can discover the biodiversity of the Belgian coastal region. Together with experts, they learn tricks and tools to make the invisible life at sea, on the beach, in the dunes and elsewhere on the coast visible. By doing that, they get the chance to become a real citizen scientist.

A surprising and fascinating day for young and old, moving scientific knowledge to a higher level!

Check the practical details and the program on www.zeekerweten.be (Dutch only).

Several LifeWatch Flanders colleagues will host interesting stands with fun hands-on activities.

Start/End: Sunday, May 8, 2022 – 10:00 to 16:00

13th LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly

LifeWatch ERIC

Online, 29 March 2022. The 13th General Assembly of LifeWatch ERIC will take place on 29 March 2022. The GA will go ahead online, in accordance with COVID-19 health guidelines. Its members will be advised of joining instructions.

Transfiere 2022

Transfiere 2022

The biggest professional and multi-sectoral Forum for knowledge and technology transfer that takes place in Spain, and that gathers the most relevant players in the national and international R&D&i ecosystem.

This year, as every year, LifeWatch ERIC will be among the participants, waiting to welcome you at its exhibition booth!

African Union – European Union Summit: A Science Agenda

au-eu summit

Online, 14 – 18 February 2022.

The AERAP Africa-Europe Science Collaboration Platform will organise side events at the AU-EU Summit on 14 – 18 February 2022. The purpose of the meeting will be to promote awareness of the contribution of collaborative research and development as a critical aspect of EU-Africa relations and collaborations, in particular in addressing global challenges together.

The general topics for the Summit side event will include:


1. The Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, NDICI, also known as Global Europe. The Communication from the Commission on the Global Approach to Research and Innovation is a key paper: ….to serve as a guide in implementing the international dimension of the new EU programme for civil research and innovation, Horizon Europe, and its synergies with other EU programmes, in particular the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe.

2. How to accelerate an inclusive approach to collaborative research, recognising African leadership and the untapped potential of women and girls to contribute to science and innovation.

3. Consider how to leverage synergies between funding mechanisms led by the EU and others including development finance provided by the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and others.

4. Raise awareness of the unforeseen and unintended impact of regulations on potential research collaborations with Africa. These include data privacy, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the In-vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and the Clinical Trials Regulation. Good regulation cannot act as a barrier between African and EU and other researchers. African nations need to build their enabling regulatory environment and regulatory compliance with the EU.

5. Indigenous knowledge can be a force for good and part of the equation when promoting Africa-Europe science collaboration, including developing relevant information services and linking indigenous knowledge to data capacities; patent data. WTO TRIPS Art. 66.2 is critical to supporting technology transfer.   

6. The meeting will also consider the importance of the SDGs in this context, including enabling local and community (UN Local 2030) science as part of the global response.

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met in Kigali, Rwanda, on 26 October 2021, took stock of progress regarding the priority areas adopted during the last AU–EU Summit held in 2017, in Abidjan. This press release provides some guidance on priorities for the AU-EU Summit on 17-18 Feb 2022.

To join this event please register here. For more information, please see the AERAP website.

5th edition of the Big Seashell Survey

BigSeashellSurvey

All along the Flemish and Dutch coasts, 19 March 2022.

Who isn’t fascinated by shells on the beach? Picking up shells, admiring them and trying to find out the story behind the find. And if at all possible, to give science a helping hand at the same time. That is what the Big Seashell Survey is all about!

On Saturday 19 March 2022, the Big Seashell Survey will take place, as part of the LifeWatch Belgium programme. It is the fifth time this citizen science initiative has been organised. In each of the ten coastal municipalities, shell experts will help you collect and identify your hundred beach shells at the counting stations between 10 am and 4 pm. And if hundreds of enthusiasts do this, we all learn a lot more about these fascinating sea creatures. Experience or not, everyone can become a marine citizen scientist for a day!

For the first time this year, comparisons will be made between the shells found on Flemish beaches and those of the Netherlands. On the same day, the natural history museum Naturalis in Leiden will be holding a big seashell survey as well, on the beaches of the coastal province South Holland – as part of the event Leiden2022 – European City of Science. Are you also curious whether we will see big differences?

In addition, families with children can go to three provincial visitor centres (Duinpanne, Raversyde Anno 1465 and ZWIN Nature Park) for a playful introduction to shells (workshop in Dutch only). Afterwards, they will be fully prepared to collect and process a sample of shells at a counting station.

Find more information about this event on www.groteschelpenteldag.be (in Dutch only).

Subscribe now on the website of EOS Iedereen Wetenschapper and receive the newsletter (in Dutch only) with the necessary information and keep up to date on the results (registration is free and not obligatory).

The Big Seashell Survey is an initiative of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), EOS Wetenschap magazine, the Province of West Flanders, Natuurpunt, Strandwerkgroep, Kusterfgoed and the 10 coastal municipalities. Initiative within the framework of LifeWatch Belgium.

ACTRIS Science Conference

ACTRIS Science Conference

Online, 11–13 May 2022.

Hosted byACTRIS (ENVRI Community Member)
Organised byInstitute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki Atmosphere and Climate Competence Centre (ACCC), University of Helsinki ACTRIS Interim Head Office
Supported byEuropean Commission, University of Helsinki, Academy of Finland
Funded byEuropean Union research and innovation programme under grant agreements ACTRIS IMP (871115), ATMO-ACCESS (101008004), RI-URBANS (101036245) and Academy of Finland via ACCC Flagship (337549).
OverviewThe three-day open ACTRIS Science Conference aims to bring together members of different atmospheric science communities and discuss the latest scientific breakthroughs e.g., in air quality and climate research. The contributions are solicited on the topics covering all aspects of ACTRIS scientific activities. Furthermore, we would like to encourage participation of the scientists working in the other European Environmental Research Infrastructures to share their findings and access unique opportunities for networking and Research and Development collaboration! The scientific topics include, inter alia:
– climate change
– air quality measurement
– technology development and innovation
– atmospheric composition and vertical profiling
– aerosol particles, trace gases and clouds
– harmonisation of observations
– laboratory experiments
– mobile measurements (measurement campaigns and experiments)
– calibration/validation of satellite observations
– ACTRIS data usage in models
Participation and call for abstractsThe ACTRIS open science conference registration and call for abstracts will open in March 2022. The abstracts will be published in the Report Series in Aerosol Science.
Who is it for?– Research organisations and scientists in the field of atmospheric and environmental sciences
– Environmental Research Infrastructures and their staff
– Private companies developing scientific instrumentation or services in the field of atmospheric sciences
– Industrial end-users looking for new technologies/ services
– Air Quality Networks and end users of air quality data interested in enhancing their monitoring capacities and implementing newest scientific findings
ContactFor all practical questions, please contact Prof. Tuukka Petäjä (tuukka.petaja[@]helsinki.fi) and Prof. Katrianne Lehtipalo (katrianne.lehtipalo[@]helsinki.fi)

AnaEE Conference 2022 – “Ecosystems services under pressure: the role of experimentation”

AnaEE

Prague, Czech Republic, 27–30 June 2022. AnaEE Conference 2022: Ecosystems services are crucial for society and human welfare. It is essential to protect ecosystem functioning in order to mitigate the challenges of the Anthropocene. Novel management strategies are needed to secure biodiversity, promote greenhouse gas reduction and carbon sequestration, ensure drinking water quality and quantity, and sustain or develop food production. Experimentation and modelling are of uttermost importance to understand the functioning of ecosystems and their behaviour under anthropogenic pressures such as climate change, pollution, land use and management practices.

The goals of the AnaEE Conference 2022 are to discuss the role of agriculture, forests and natural ecosystems in reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration, as well as to discuss the importance of holistic approaches that integrate across ecosystem boundaries spanning from terrestrial to freshwater ecosystems. A stakeholder session will be held to summarise the outcomes of the conference and initiate a discussion aimed at policy makers, practitioners, farmers and industry, as well as other related scientific communities, to leverage the added value of the AnaEE infrastructure and find answers to the most pressing ecosystem challenges. At the end of the conference, a full day will be devoted to an internal AnaEE business meeting, and training for platform managers and other interested parties.

Programme

Topics and featured speakers

SOC and LOC

Deadlines, fees, and call for abstracts

Registration

Abstract submission

Sponsors

Visit the conference website for more information.

ENVRI FIP workshops: Making the ENVRIs “FIP for purpose” through FAIR Convergence

FIP Workshops

Online, 25 January – 22 February 2022.

For this series of workshops, ENVRI has invited experts in FAIR implementation to guide us through the steps needed to create our own FAIR Implementation Profiles (FIPs). The experts will provide an overview of the variety of options and technologies that are available to address each of the FAIR principles. Then, using state of the art tools, they will assist us in producing a set of machine-readable FAIR Implementation Profiles that support and inform FAIRification efforts both within, as well as between, ENVRI subdomain communities.

A link will be provided shortly before the meeting.

Registration

You have to register yourself to receive the meeting link. Please register here

Speakers

Barbara Magagna, Eric Schultes

Who should attend

Data management specialists and IT developers from all ENVRI Community members, across subdomains and RI maturity levels, who are working on FAIRifying their data management and services.

Background

The FAIR principles describe how digital objects should be like, and behave, for them to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable by computer-driven processes. But the principles do not give any detailed recommendations on how to achieve FAIRness in practice – what technologies to apply, which metadata standards to follow, etc. Instead, it is expected that every research community of practice should make their own choices. This has led to a huge variety of technical solutions for what are actually common problems.

To bring some order and convergence, and at the same time allow comparisons between and within domains, the concept of FAIR Implementation Profiles was introduced. These profiles are visualized in the FAIR Convergence Matrix, a collaborative online resource containing machine-readable descriptions of all FAIR implementation choices made by a wide range of research communities. This is the approach already taken by ENVIR-FAIR in the first two rounds of assessing the status of FAIR implementation in the involved RIs. Since then, the FIP tool has been considerably improved and this three-day training event will help to make use of it in the third run.

The FIP workshops in a nutshell:

FIP introduction

25 January 2022 – 9:00-12:00 CET

The first workshop introduces to the FIP approach: The FIP ontology and some discussion on the FAIR enabling resources (technical solutions, implementation strategies, standards and models) which address each of the FAIR Guiding principles. The FIP Wizard is explained and its use is demonstrated with the compilation of a demo example.

Based on this introduction, the data stewards in charge for each of the RIs’ are asked to engage the FIP Wizard and build the FIP representing the implementation choices of their specific repository.

FIP consultation

28 January 2022 – 9:00-12:00 CET

The second workshop provides consulting around the issues encountered by the data stewards, providing guidance around the many considerations influencing implementation choices.

FAIR convergence

22 February, 2022 – 9:00-12:00 CET

The finalised FIPs are collected in a FAIR Convergence Matrix where each column represents a Community (or a RI) and each row a FAIR enabling resource deployed for specific FAIR principles. In this way potential alignments of FIPs from different Communities can be identified in order to optimise convergence on the reuse of existing Resources and interoperation between the FAIR data and services of each Community.

2nd RDA Info Share Webinar

RDA Info Share Webinar

Online, 12 January 2022.

The EOSC Future project is organising the second RDA info share webinar. This online event will highlight two new RDA Open Calls focusing on domain ambassadors and maintenance facilities. The information session will delve into the details of both calls as well as future RDA funding plans. Register now.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Open Calls aim to bring data initiatives closer to EOSC and provide EOSC with expertise, tools, best practices and standards from the global research data community. Throughout the entire EOSC Future project, the RDA’s €1 million mechanism will award over 65 grantees under 9 open calls.

On 12 January, EOSC Future and RDA will hold the second RDA info share webinar to discuss the second & third RDA Open Calls:

  • Open Call for Domain Ambassadors (Deadline: 15 February 202216.00 CET) invites disciplinary experts and groups to serve as ‘EOSC communicators’ within their respective communities 
  • Open Call for Maintenance Facilities (Deadline: 15 March 202216.00 CET) is tailored to individuals/teams who can help establish an EOSC maintenance facility drawing on RDA standards, tools and outputs.

Both calls are looking for applicants who can support EOSC – integrating services and expertise – but from distinct angles. Successful applicants will:

  • contribute know-how to EOSC, while also benefitting from its services
  • ensure EOSC has the necessary resources to provide its core services
  • provide long-term maintenance solutions supporting the broader EOSC community
  • leverage EOSC services in support of community-driven disciplinary development
  • raise awareness and wider engagement in the EOSC community.

Info Share Agenda

11.00 – 11.05          Welcome & EOSC Future – RDA Open Call Context

11.05 – 11.15          Open Call Presentations: ‘RDA Open Call for Domain Ambassadors’ & ‘RDA Open Call for Maintenance Facilities’

11.15 – 11.20          Next RDA Open Calls (planned until mid-2022)

11.20 – 11.45          Questions and Answers

Registration

This meeting is open to anyone interested in RDA and EOSC-related topics, whether RDA open call applicants, EOSC Future consortium members, or other interested parties. 

Interested? You can register here

You can also consult the EOSC Future Funding Platform for more information on both calls, the number of grantees and scope. 

EOSC Future is just one of the many ongoing high-level projects that LifeWatch ERIC is involved in.