LifeWatch ERIC on Austria’s joining DiSSCo RI via OSCA

Dissco - OSCA

A strategic boost to European collaboration: LifeWatch ERIC warmly welcomes Austria’s integration into DiSSCo via OSCA. This national-level mobilisation is a model of how local strengths can be federated into a European knowledge system for biodiversity and ecosystem research. Natural History Museums and Botanical Gardens form undoubtedly the largest Research Infrastructure in Europe. The added value their specimens and their research products they take from joining Research Infrastructure is huge and it provides a serious return to the countries and societies invested in them.

  • Complementary missions, shared vision: DiSSCo’s work in digitising and harmonising specimen-based collections can be used in combination with LifeWatch ERIC’s focus on ecosystem-level observations, Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and computational workflows. Together, the two Research Infrastructures can cover a large spectrum from specimen or individual to system.
  • Enhancing synthetic knowledge production: With DiSSCo offering curated, voucher-based data, the synergy with LifeWatch ERIC, which provides semantic interoperability, cross-domain analytics, and modular service composition, synthetic knowledge, that is, integrated, cross-scale, and policy-relevant is created. This alone is a big leap to shaping the science of the future and the training of younger generations becomes a must in order for the countries to receive the full benefits from such concerted research practices.
  • One Health and Environmental Intelligence: We echo DiSSCo’s focus on the UN’s One Health Framework. LifeWatch ERIC’s ecological observatories, data repositories and analytical services and DiSSCo’s curated collections form a powerful foundation for early warning systems on animal diseases, assessments of zoonotic risks, and biodiversity severe change.
  • Infrastructure alignment and EOSC integration: LifeWatch ERIC supports DiSSCo’s alignment with EOSC, open science principles, and digital twins. Our joint efforts enhance FAIR data flows, reduce fragmentation, and increase reuse of biodiversity knowledge for research and innovation. DiSSCo’s continuous support to FAIR Data Objects (FDOs) forms a good example for the remaining Research Infrastructures dedicated on the Biosphere of the ENVRI Science Cluster in EOSC ecosystem.
  • Pooling resources and building capacity: Like DiSSCo, LifeWatch ERIC believes in shared platforms, training pathways, and economies of scale across Europe. Our collaboration offers smaller institutions access to best-in-class tools, methods, and community practices.
  • Reinforcing the European Research Area: OSCA’s connection to DiSSCo and, by extension, to the ENVRI cluster strengthens Austria’s role in the ERA. Together, we foster a cohesive and agile infrastructure ecosystem serving science, policy, and society.

European network releases White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation collaboration to advance the UN SDGs

White Paper

A network of legal entities based in Europe, coordinated by LifeWatch ERIC, has released a white paper that presents a collaborative commitment to leveraging scientific knowledge and digital innovation, in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Emerging from discussions at the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Science Summit (SSUNGA79), the white paper is the result of joint work by a network of partners with global interests in biodiversity, ecology, engineering and beyond. These organisations have decided to combine their expertise through European initiatives such as Research Infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), Digital Twin projects and academic publishers. Their aim is to provide a strong base for collaboration and to contribute strategically to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) targets. Moreover, they also seek to forge an international alliance to further integrate biodiversity conservation into the UN Summit of the Future priorities and the post-SDG agenda.

The starting point is clear: biodiversity can no longer be treated as a siloed issue. It is foundational to climate resilience, public health, food security, and economic stability. The three interconnected planetary crises facing humanity (biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution) represent the most urgent challenges of our time. Addressing them requires collective efforts from scientific communities, as well as the public and private sectors and policymakers.

In this context, Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) are crucial, because the complex transformations we need demand data-driven decision-making, cross-sectoral collaboration, and multidisciplinary and cross-domain research frameworks.

The network had already demonstrated this holistic approach during a workshop held in New York, in September 2024, as part of the SSUNGA79. Building on that foundation, the organisations now focus on their shared impact, rather than individual achievements. They have identified the K-M GBF as a testbed for contributing to the SDGs, based on long-track experience in European initiatives.

The K-M GBF itself focuses on seven strategic considerations, and twenty-three specific targets for its implementation. In the white paper, the network has been working collectively on the seven strategic considerations, outlining practical ways to contributing to each of them.

Moreover, the paper expands to other UN STI priorities and sets the basis for a global alliance: a convergence point for diverse knowledge systems, from cutting-edge digital tools and genomic research to traditional ecological practices, and as a mechanism for aligning efforts across thematic domains, such as climate, health, food, and equity. 

Full announcement: https://blog.pensoft.net/2025/09/16/scientists-call-for-a-global-alliance-to-place-biodiversity-at-the-heart-of-the-un-pact-for-the-future

LifeWatch ERIC at the EOSC Winter School 2024 in Thessaloniki

eosc winter school

The EOSC Winter School 2024 took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, from January 29 to February 1. The meeting aimed to establish a solid foundation to encourage innovation, accelerate scientific discoveries, and empower researchers across Europe and beyond. The meeting gathered representatives from all EOSC-related projects. The discussions included policy recommendations, concrete case studies, and information exchange on future models. The event was held at the Mediterranean Palace, offering a focused environment for mutual learning and networking.

Our CEO, Christos Arvanitidis, attended the meeting as LifeWatch ERIC leads Work Package Number 6 (WP6) of the EOSC Future project. This Horizon 2020 project aims to implement the European Open Science Cloud, supporting the establishment of a reliable platform for open science where data, resources, and services in all scientific disciplines will be available in a fair and accessible manner. 

Following a suggestion of the European Commission, the EOSC Association, organised the EOSC Winter School to address the need for a collective knowledge environment that promotes an inclusive and interconnected research ecosystem for all consortium partners contributing to EOSC, which emerged during the latest coordination meetings.

The school was opened by  Ute Gunsenheimer (EOSC Association) with the inauguration of the Plenary Session, followed by engaging discussions bringing together diverse perspectives and providing a rich blend of insights and experiences.

One of the short-term objectives is to ensure that the Task Forces of the EOSC Association collaborate in a structured manner with the EOSC projects. This collaboration should be hands-on and technical, with a focus on the six identified Opportunity Areas (PIDs, Metadata, Ontologies & Interoperability, FAIR Assessment & Alignment, User & Resource Environments, Skills, Training, Rewards, Recognition & Upskilling, and Open Scholarly Communication).

Mid-term objectives aim to ensure seamless project onboarding and shape EOSC’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) 2.0 through inter-project collaborations. In the long term, the objectives are to increase the potential of Horizon Europe’s EOSC-related projects to deliver sustainable results that benefit the ESOC deployment and maximise project impact. 

To learn more about the EOSC Winter School in 2024, please visit the official webpage.

World Wetlands Day: How our wellbeing relies on restoring wetlands

world wetlands day

Today, 2 February 2024, is the 27th World Wetlands Day. As The World Health Organization said, our well-being depends on the stability of our climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development. Wetlands play a significant role in connecting all three factors.

For instance, just an acre of wetlands can hold up to 1.5 million gallons of floodwater, protecting coastal areas against natural disasters. Peatlands have the potential to store twice as much carbon as the global forest biomass. Wetlands also provide food for up to 4.5 billion people annually through the fish and rice paddies harvested from them.

On this day, we would like to draw attention to an article created as part of the RESTORE4Cs project, in which LifeWatch ERIC participate. The project aims to model wetland restoration for carbon pathways, climate change mitigation and adaptation, ecosystem services, and biodiversity co-benefits.

“For centuries people have found solace in remote wetlands, but there is now evidence that spending time in places like these actually helps boost mental health. This is particularly essential for the dark winter months in northern latitude”,

Mark Reed, Professor of Rural Entrepreneurship at Scotland’s Rural College

Despite this history, we are now losing these ecosystems alarmingly. The 2018 Global Wetland Outlook from the Ramsar Convention revealed that one third of the wetlands have been lost globally since 1970, mainly to urbanization and agriculture. A key theme of World Wetlands Day 2024 is the need to act now, and Europe’s researchers believe we already have solutions to turn things around.

“I think global treaties and recent EU laws mean we’re in the right decade to restore these ecosystems”

Dania Abdul Malak, Director of European Topic Centre for Spatial Analysis and Synthesis at the University of Malaga

Nowadays there are policies that can really help reestablish their function, and make sure they can also provide ecosystem services. Restoring wetland ecosystems will become critical for a more sustainable climate, biodiversity and human wellbeing by 2030.

Matuesz Grygoruk, Professor at Warsaw University of Life Sciences’ (SGGW) Department of Hydrology, Meteorology and Water Management

Mateusz suggested prioritising wetland restoration as a central focus in determining environmental management actions. He argued that these efforts are crucial in restoring the functions of wetlands, which are irreplaceable through any other management measures.

Restoring wetlands can have significant benefits, such as improving their biodiversity, water storage capacity, and ability to sequester carbon in soil. WET HORIZONS, a sister project of RESTORE4Cs, aims to enhance wetlands restoration and support European wetland policy.

To learn more about RESTORE4Cs and their commitment to World Wetlands Day, visit this project page.

DTO-BioFlow: Building the biodiversity component of the Digital Twin of the Ocean

Funded through the EC Horizon Europe Programme and coordinated by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), DTO-BioFlow aims at incorporating previously unavailable or difficult-to-access marine-biodiversity data into the biodiversity component of the EU Digital Twin Ocean, ensuring sustainable data flows for marine biodiversity research.

When it comes to observing, mapping, and monitoring biodiversity in maritime ecosystems, marine habitats present specific and one-of-a-kind issues. In spite of the fact that significant advancement has been made in Europe to collect, harmonise, and make available data on marine biodiversity, particularly as a result of the efforts of European research infrastructure (such as EMODnet, Copernicus Marine, and other related European and international initiatives (MBON, OBIS, GOOS)), a large portion of the data that is currently being collected is unavailable and inaccessible; this type of data is referred to as “sleeping data.”

That’s the stage when DTO BioFlow Project steps in: its primary objective is to awaken sleeping biodiversity data, enabling a smooth integration of both existing and new data into the EU Digital Twin Ocean.

The project aligns with the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy and Nature Restoration Law and with the mission “Restore our oceans and waters by 2030”, both of which advocate for the protection and restoration of land and sea regions.

The DTO-BioFlow Kick off meeting

DTO-BioFlow project kicked off on September 27th in Ostend, Belgium. The meeting was hosted at the InnovOcean Campus and organised by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), the project’s coordinator, host and technical manager of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) portal.

LifeWatch ERIC is one of the 30 partners from 14 countries that make up DTO-BioFlow Consortium. The other project partners include research, infrastructures (e.g., EMBRC), networks (MBON), organisations (ICES), global aggregators and platforms (OBIS), and others.

The consortium partners bring together biological monitoring infrastructures and experts, data managers, and DTO developers, marine biodiversity-relevant policy development and implementation and enabling the Mission to meet its 2030 targets.

Revolutionizing Access to Ocean Biodiversity Data and Driving Sustainable Integration

“Between September 2023 and February 2027, DTO-Bioflow will come up with creative and long-term solutions that will make previously unavailable or difficult-to-access marine-biodiversity data available to the public. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase the flow of relevant biodiversity data by unlocking current barriers to assimilation and ingestion.”, explains Klaas Deneudt, manager of the VLIZ Marine Observation Centre and coordinator of the DTO BioFlow project.

Over the next four years DTO-BioFlow consortium will work on consolidating standards, quality control, communication protocols, harmonisation pipelines, data products, data models, ingestion procedures and incentives for sustainable connection to improve the interoperability and digitisation of biodiversity data. The project will also test out various technologies that are both affordable and adaptable to carry out species monitoring on a massive scale. The end-to-end approach will be demonstrated via a number of science-based use cases and via mechanisms to monitor, measure progress and drive community action towards increasing biodiversity data flows. To learn more about DTO-BioFlow, please visit the project website.

In Brussels to present the All-Ready project: meet the Agroecology Virtual Lab

Agroecology Living Labs & Research Infrastructures

In collaboration with AE4EU, ALL-Ready organised its final event in Brussels on 27 September 2023. The conference was hosted by the Committee of the Regions.

Our Agroecology Project Manager, Iria Soto Embodas, presented the All-Ready project in the panel “Practice Perspective: How to put Agroecology Living Labs and Research Infrastructures in practice? Q&A”. Within the project, one of the deliverables was to produce the Agroecology Virtual Lab, a collaboration platform to standardise collaboration for research and innovation. During the event, the steps to achieve this were presented.

The one-day conference highlighted two projects that have laid the foundation for a European Network of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures. The discussions focused on how these projects can best support the transition to agroecology and translate theoretical concepts into practical applications. The event explored the lessons learned from three years of project work and highlighted regions’ role in driving agroecology transitions.

The Agroecology Virtual Lab

The Agroecology Virtual Lab is a web platform designed to simplify, centralise, digitalise and streamline the creation of interdisciplinary innovation ecosystems and communities via collaboration with complementary partners that match your needs. This Agroecology Virtual Lab includes, among other functionalities, a marketplace, networking tools, a repository of resources for dissemination and knowledge sharing, geographical visualisation of innovation ecosystems available agroecology best practices and other data management functionalities.

The platform caters to individuals and organisations from various sectors, including research, innovation, public, and civil sectors. The main objective of Agroecology Virtual Labs is to assist scientists, academics, small and medium-sized businesses, farmers, authorities, public bodies, consumers, citizens, and anyone interested in agrifood systems. Additionally, it aims to bring together stakeholders from different sectors of society to foster collaboration and exchange of knowledge on real-world applications of agroecology, research questions, technological solutions, and any other innovative ideas.

About the project

Agricultural systems face multiple challenges today, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, dwindling resources, and soil and water quality degradation. To address these challenges, Open Innovation Arrangements, including Living Labs and Research Infrastructures, can pave the way to enhance the sustainability and resilience of farming systems.

There is great potential to promote agroecology in Europe. The main objective of ALL-Ready is to establish AgroEcoLLNet, the framework for a future European network of LLs and RI that will facilitate the transition towards agroecology throughout Europe. To learn more about All-Ready, please visit the project website.