Event Categories: Students

Metz, France, 24 November 2022.

The European Commission is strongly promoting the establishment and operation of European Research Infrastructures (ERIs), funded by the Member States, as key components of the scientific research landscape supporting the global competitiveness of European research communities. ERIs are aimed at offering high quality data and advanced facilities to European scientists, with particular attention towards early career researchers, promoting innovation, technology transfer to industries, and citizen engagement in science.

In the area of Ecology, some ERIs have already been established as European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC), and are currently operational, whilst others are in the process of becoming so. Globally, the landscape of European Research Infrastructures offers monitoring sites and facilities covering all types of environmental domains, i.e., terrestrial, freshwater, transitional and marine waters and key research areas, such as those dealing with biodiversity organisation, conservation and restoration, with ecosystem processes and carbon sequestration, water and energy fluxes or with agroecosystems.

On 24 November 2022, LifeWatch ERIC is organising the Symposium: “Advanced facilities for the ecological research: the European Research Infrastructures”.
Here, we propose an expert panel discussion, with leading scientists from advanced ERIs supporting European scientific research on biodiversity and ecosystems, such as LifeWatch ERIC, the European e-Science Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, the ecosystem component of ICOS ERIC, the Integrated Carbon Observation System, eLTER RI, the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone ad socio-ecological Research, DiSSCo, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, Danubius-RI, the International Centre for Advanced Studies on River-Sea Systems, EMSO ERIC, the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory, and JERICO-RI, the Joint European Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories. Presenting their key integrated research facilities to the SFE² GFÖ EEF Joint Meeting – “Ecology & Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges“, these infrastructures offer to the relevant ecological research community of practice, a view on their data, services and other types of research resources, on the opportunities for engagement and on the possibilities to propose new types of data and services to be promoted, collected and developed by the ERIs.

The proposed discussion will focus on the major scientific and societal challenges of contemporary times and on the greatest threats faced by biodiversity, ecosystem services and societal benefits, in the context of natural and anthropic pressures, including climate change impacts. The leading scientists involved in the discussion will present how each ERI will commit to collaboratively tackle these issues, supporting the creation of new multidisciplinary and cross-domain knowledge towards facilitation of the implementation of current policies at all levels and the creation of new ones. They will also illustrate how scientists can access their integrated research facilities.

Keynote speakers:
Alberto Basset, University of Salento and LifeWatch ERIC
Christos Arvanitidis, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and LifeWatch ERIC
Dario Papale, University of Tuscia and ICOS ERIC
Michael Mirtl, Environment Agency Austria and eLTER RI
Niels Raes, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and DiSSCo
Adrian Stanica, National Institute for Research and Development of Marine Geology and Geoecology (GeoEcomar) and Danubius-RI
Gabriella Quaranta, EMSO ERIC
Laurent Delauney, Ifremer and JERICO-RI
Rob J.J. Hendriks, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Biodiversa+

Chairperson: Andreas Petzold, Juelich Research Centre, IAGOS and ENVRI-FAIR

Speakers will present their RIs, then they will illustrate the services and facilities that these RIs can provide to address major threats for biodiversity (e.g. alien species, habitat degradation and fragmentation etc) and tackle climate change impacts affecting ecosystem functioning and services. The discussion will be therefore an occasion to highlight multidisciplinary expertise and synergies on these key topics.

Metz, France, 21 November 2022.

LifeWatch ERIC ICT staff, in collaboration with scientists already engaged in developing research activities on non-indigenous and invasive species using LifeWatch ERIC’s Virtual Research Environment facilities, is organising the 4-hour computer-based Workshop: “e-Tools and resources to address key ecological questions on Non-indigenous and Invasive Species” from 14:00-18:00 in Room 13.
Interested attendees will be trained to access and use the Virtual Research Environments from their personal computers. The hands-on session will be introduced by an interactive session to guide the attendees on their first approach to the VREs and related e-tools.

The workshop is organised in the framework of the SFE²-GfÖ-EEF joint meeting “Ecology & Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges“, on 21-25 November 2022 in Metz. It is being organised by the LIEC (University of Lorraine, CNRS) and other labs in northeastern France working in the fields of ecology and evolution.

Click here for more information.

Workshop description
Non-indigenous and Invasive Species (NIS) are considered one of the major threats to the ecosystem functioning and one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. Despite the advances in the understanding of introduction pathways, mechanisms of bio-invasions, and impacts of invasive species, the effective management and control of NIS still lag behind their spread.
For such reason, LifeWatch ERIC has developed e-science tools to assist researchers, stakeholders, and citizens in deepening knowledge and obtaining rapid responses to mitigate the risks and impacts of NIS in the terrestrial and aquatic domains.
This joint effort has resulted in the development of a series of ICT facilities and workflows to support scientists in running five case studies (CS) on NIS, tackling different key aspects, including:

1. the evaluation of their trophic habits (CS 1);
2. the early-detection of NIS invasion and spread, through standard monitoring procedures and metabarcoding (CS 2 & 3);
3. the development of keystone NIS species dispersion scenarios for terrestrial Mediterranean ecosystems (CS 4);
4. the EUNIS habitat and ecosystem vulnerability (CS 5).

The five case studies and workflows are embedded into Virtual Research Environments (VREs) that provide a series of web-services made available through a user-friendly interface and the datasets and services produced through the case studies are accessible through the LifeWatch ERIC catalogue.
 
The workshop aims at presenting the LifeWatch ERIC VREs and e-resources developed for NIS research. During the workshop, the scientific case study leaders, together with the LifeWatch ERIC ICT team, will introduce the aims and analytical tools (e.g. models, computing facilities) included in each workflow. The presentation of the case studies and web-services realised will be followed by a hands-on session where the attendees can access the VREs.
 
AGENDA
14:00-14:05: General introduction (10 mins)
Chairs:
Christos Arvanitidis – Chief Executive Officer, LifeWatch ERIC
Juan Miguel González-Aranda – Chief Technology Officer/ICT-Core Director, LifeWatch ERIC
Alberto Basset – Service Centre Director, LifeWatch ERIC

14:05-14:25: General introduction to Tesseract (15 mins)
LifeWatch ERIC ICT team presentation: Antonio José Sáenz-Albanés – LifeWatch ERIC
 
14:25-15:00: Case Study 1: Evaluation of NIS trophic habits – Crustaceans (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Raffaele De Giorgi – University of Salento, LifeWatch ERIC Service Center
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
15:00-15:35: Case Study 2: Early-detection of NIS invasion and spread through standard monitoring procedures and metabarcoding – ARMS (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Katrina Exter – Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
15:35-16:10: Case Study 3: Development of keystone NIS species dispersion scenarios
for terrestrial Mediterranean ecosystems. – Ailanthus altissima (35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Carmela Marangi – Italian National Research Council (CNR), Institute for applied mathematics (IAC)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
16:10-16:30: Break (20 mins)
 
16:30-17:05: Case Study 4: The EUNIS habitat and ecosystem vulnerability. Biotope
(35 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Julien Radoux (Catholic University of Louvain) and Heliana Teixeira (University of Aveiro)
Hands-on session
Questions and discussion
 
17:05-17: 40: LifeBlock (35 mins)
LifeWatch ERIC team presentation: Juan Miguel González-Aranda, Joaquín López-Lérida, and Ana Mellado-García (LifeWatch ERIC, ICT-Core)
Hands-on session
 
17:40-17:55: Essential Biodiversity Variables using Remote Sensing (15 mins)
Scientific leader presentation: Joris Timmermans – LifeWatch ERIC VLIC
Questions and discussion
 
17:55-18:00: Final Remarks and Conclusion (5 mins)

Lecce, Italy, 10–15 July 2022.

The ENVRI Community International Summer School, now at its fifth edition, is organised by ENVRI-FAIR and LifeWatch ERIC and will take place in Lecce, Italy, from 10–15 July. This edition’s title is “Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”, and it will cover topics such as user interfaces, packaging of services, reusability and validation of services, and building and supporting networks through the lens of the ENVRI-Hub approach. 

This School is therefore mainly aimed at IT architects, Research Infrastructure (RI) service developers and user support staff, and RI staff working on user interaction and community/network building.

The Summer School will welcome participants on the afternoon of Sunday 10 July 2022 with an opening event, while the actual School programme will last from Monday to Friday afternoon, closing with a certificate ceremony. Two online webinars are also planned to take place in the third and fourth week of June on specific use cases, in preparation for the School or to attend as stand-alone sessions.

The outline of the School programme is as follows:

1. Introducing the ENVRI-Hub (concept and architecture)
2. Learning to know your end users and their expectations: requirements elicitation
3. Create high quality documentation and usage examples to support service end users
4. Developing Services and Fostering Reusability/Interoperability among them
5. Validating and evaluating your services
6. Participants’ Presentations, School Evaluation and Certificates

Successful applicants to ENVRI Community International Summer School 2022 will be offered accommodation in the beautiful baroque city of Lecce in Southern Italy, and will be invited to “extracurricular” activities such as restaurant dinners and excursions in the surrounding area. 

Interested persons are invited to apply by 26 June by filling in the sign-up form here.

You can access the dedicated minisite with more detailed information on the School here.

Online, 17 & 23 June 2022.

In the run-up to the ENVRI Community International Summer School in July, LifeWatch ERIC and ENVRI-FAIR will be organising two webinars on “Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”. Participation in the webinars can be in preparation for the School or as stand-alone sessions, for those who cannot attend the School, or those who are still considering registering. For more information on the ENVRI Community International Summer School “Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”, please visit the dedicated minisite.

The webinars are particularly aimed at IT architects, Research Infrastructure (RI) service developers and user support staff, and RI staff working on user interaction and community/network building. Links to the sessions will be provided upon registration.

Webinar #1: Service validation & evaluation: making sure your services are up to the task

Date
Friday 17 June, 10:00-11:30 CEST

Where
Zoom (link to be provided upon registration)

Programme

• Validating services & assessing their TRL – Mark van de Sanden (SURF)
• Service evaluation: why & how – Yin Chen (EGI)
• Evaluating ENVRI services: experiences from the ENVRIplus – Maggie Hellström (ICOS)
• Q&A and general discussion – plenary
  
  

Webinar #2: Service documentation & tutorials: rolling out the red carpet for end users

Date
Thursday 23 June, 10:00-11:30 CEST

Where
Zoom (link to be provided upon registration)

Programme

• Writing effective service documentation for EUDAT services – Rob Carillo (EUDAT)
• Service tutorial design: experiences from EOSC Synergy – Helen Clare (JISC)
• Using Jupyter Notebooks to introduce services to “new” end users – ENVRI-FAIR expert (TBA)
• Q&A and general discussion – plenary
  
  

You can sign up for one or both webinars using the form linked below:

Click here to access the form.