On 12 & 13 November, the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre organised the first working meeting on “Metadata, Controlled Vocabularies and Ontologies” in Lecce, Italy.
The aim of the meeting was to set a roadmap for a common strategy to be adopted on these within the LifeWatch ERIC community and in accordance with the FAIR principles.
LifeWatch Italy calls for proposals to develop study cases in/at:
1) the Phyto VRE and Alien Species VRE – LifeWatch Italy invites the interested researchers to submit projects proposals involving the re-use and/or the customization of resources produced by LW-ITA or by other initiatives (including infrastructures and projects), their integration with resources available to the project proponents, and the implementation of new e-services required to address the specific project questions – please download the full call
2) the distributed Laboratory of “Molecular Biodiversity” – LifeWatch Italy invites the interested researchers to submit projects proposals involving the production of molecular data through “Next Generation sequencing” technologies (e.g. sequencing of amplicons, genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes and meta-transcriptomes) and their bioinformatic analysis – please download the full call.
Proposals shall be drafted using our application form and submitted via email (lifewatchitalia[at]unisalento.it) by 21 December 2018.
Between 9 – 13 July, around 40 academics, researchers, PhD students, data managers and research infrastructure developers from all across Europe gathered in Lecce, to join the International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures: theory and practice”, organised by the H2020 ENVRIplus project and the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre.
In recent years, one of the major challenges in environmental and earth science has been managing and using continuously growing volumes of data collected across multiple disciplines, and educating both scientists and developers on how best to do so. Many different standards, approaches, and tools have now been developed to support the research data lifecycle, which need to be examined and, where appropriate, adopted by a wider community. In particular, modern semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among environmental and ecological resources and the researchers who use them.
To address these challenges, ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre organised a five-day summer school providing an unique insight into the contemporary debate on data management in the environmental and earth sciences. The programme, combining theory with hands-on sessions, explored themes as diverse as reference modelling and research metadata semantics, data processing and e-infrastructure, identification and citation, cataloguing and provenance, and closed presenting two use cases on data management in the context of LifeWatch Italy.
More than 15,000 scientitsts from about 180 countries have signed a Warning To Humanity against the consequences of our behaviour on the biosphere. The initiative, launched by William Ripple and published on Bioscience, aims at raising global attention on the need for a cultural and behavioural change in our growth and consumption patterns to avoid irreparably compromising the biosphere.
We are in fact in the twenty-fifth anniversary of a first call made by scientists in 1994, since then, with the exception of stabilising the stratospheric ozone layer, we, as global population, have not made enough for solving the environmental challenges stressed in the first call, and, even worse, most of these have become more and more critical over the years.
Alberto Basset, Ecologist at the University of Salento and founder of LifeWatch ERIC and LifeWatch Italy, interviewed by the Italian newspaper Repubblica, said that “our first priority is spreading an ecological culture raising citizens’ awareness on the interdependence of our well-being and health with those of the other species with whom we share our territory. Scientific knowledge and conservation aand restoration policies are definitely relevant, but the key factor is our behaviour and our perception of the value of ecosystems”.
A dedicated LifeWatch Italy booth welcomes participants of the 52nd European Marine Biology Symposium (Piran, 25–29 September 2017) and guiding them to discover the first demonstration of the Phyto Virtual Research Environment.
The Phyto VRE, one of the components of the Marine VRE, is a web collaborative working environment addressing researchers’ needs in terms of accessibility, interoperability and integration on the large heterogeneous and distributed data on phytoplankton.
Thanks to three main tools, the Atlas of Phytoplankton, Atlas of Shapes, Phytoplankton Traits Thesaurus, users will be able to obtain and share harmonised data on taxonomy and morpho-functional traits, discover, access, integrate and export both own and others’ datasets, share and capture workflows, models, algorithms, online services and scientific results by orchestrators, all working collaboratively and simultaneously overcoming limitations of traditional working practices and boundaries.
Moreover, the Phyto VRE, like all LifeWatch ERIC’s virtual research environments, will be expandable with more services and tools designed on the basis of researchers’ necessities.
Come and visit us at our stand and follow the oral communication “Phytoplankton morphological and demographic traits computation in a virtual research environment Phyto VRE”*, given by Dr Elena Stanca on 26 September 2017, at 12:15.
* Elena Stanca, Leonilde Roselli, Francesco Cozzoli, Ilaria Rosati, Nicola Fiore and Alberto Basset, “Phytoplankton morphological and demographic traits computation in a virtual research environment Phyto VRE”
Form 26 – 29 June 2017, the Interim Executive Board of LifeWatch ERIC took place in Melpignano, Lecce, in the magnificent and recently renovated Palazzo Marchesale.
The meeting, hosted by the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre, thanks to the support of the Town of Melpignano, was the first operative session of the infrastructure, after the I General Assembly held in Seville. Representatives from Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and, obviously, Italy, had been meeting for four days to draft the strategical lines of the operative construction of the infrastructure, based on the valorisation of what already produced in the course of the preparatory phase.
Between the 9 –13 July, around 40 academics, researchers, PhD students, data managers and research infrastructure developers coming from all across Europe gathered in Lecce, to join the International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures: theory and practice”, organised by the H2020 ENVRIplus and LifeWatch Service Centre.
In recent years, one of the major challenges in environmental and earth science has been managing and using continuously growing volumes of data collected across multiple disciplines, and educating both scientists and developers on how best to do so. Many different standards, approaches, and tools have now been developed to support the research data lifecycle, which need to be examined and, where appropriate, adopted by a wider community. In particular, modern semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among environmental and ecological resources and the researchers who use them.
To address these challenges, ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch Service Centre organised a five-day summer school providing an unique insight into the contemporary debate on data management in the environmental and earth sciences. The programme, combining theory with hands-on sessions, explored themes as diverse as reference modelling and research metadata semantics, data processing and e-infrastructure, identification and citation, cataloguing and provenance, and closed presenting two use cases on data management in the context of LifeWatch Italy.
“Both ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch Service Centre have been working on these topics and have already organised dedicated workshops and training sessions in recent years.” say the organisers, Nicola Fiore (LifeWatch Service Centre) and Zhiming Zhao (ENVRIplus). “This year we decided to move forward and propose a full International Summer School; its participants were enthusiastic about the programme and so we are already at work on a 2019 edition”.
Deepening biodiversity and ecosystem related issues has become a crucial value in contemporary society, which is tackling global scale challenges on capital elements, such as resource supply, economic development, environmental security and human well-being. The European Commission recognises research in this area as a priority, moving further from the punctual programmes funding the many fixed-term projects, to the institution of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, as a long term strategy to ensure sustainability of research. Welcome, LifeWatch ERIC!
LifeWatch ERIC is the 14th European research infrastructure to be granted this important status, and it is composed by eight founding member states and three common facilities. Through the use of the ICT, the infrastructure guarantees the access to big sets of data on biodiversity, ensuring their standardisation and interoperability, and providing researchers and institutions with tools and services allowing the creation of customised virtual research environments, supporting policy making.
Italy, through its Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR) and its National Research Council (CNR), plays a key role in LifeWatch ERIC, hosting its Service Centre, one of the three common facilities, at the University of Salento, and contributing with its e-Biodiversity Research Institute, powered by a Joint Research Unit counting more than 30 among top level universities, national institutes, regional agencies and academies of the country.
On 8 and 9 May 2017, the first General Assembly of LifeWatch ERIC took place in Seville (Spain), and elected the interim members of the statutory bodies which will manage the Consortium until the formal ones will be appointed. Prof. Alberto Basset has been named interim Director of the Service Centre and interim Member of the Executive Board.
On 23 May 2017, European Commission Director-General for Research & Innovation, Robert Jan-Smits, awarded the LifeWatch ERIC Plate to the Spanish Secretary of State for Research, Development & Innovation, Carmen Vela, who received it on behalf of the entire LifeWatch ERIC community.
Welcome, LifeWatch ERIC!
To see the LifeWatch ERIC statutes, please click here.
You can find the Communication of the European Commission here.
Workshop | Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research Lecce (Italy) | 11–14 July 2017
Many different standards, approaches, and semantic tools have been developed to improve data sharing and interoperability. Semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate these different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among biodiversity and ecosystem resources and researchers.
LifeWatch Italy and EUDAT want to tackle these challenges through their workshop Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research, a forum for the semantic web and linked open data communities, where professionals from Academia, Research Infrastructures, Industries and others interested in these topics are welcome to present theoretical and applied research work, share experiences and discuss the latest scientific results and technology innovations around semantic technologies and linked open data in the field of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research.
In particular the event will revolve around four main themes:
The workshop Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research will take place in Lecce, in the fascinating historical framework of Monastero degli Olivetani (University of Salento) from 11–14 July 2017.
The International Society of Limnology will held its XXXIII Congress in Turin, from 31 July – 5 August 2016. LifeWatch Italy will play an active role in the congress feeding the scientific debate with a special session focusing on Alien Species.
Special Session SS34: Alien species ecological impacts: from genomics to macroecology
Alien species are considered one of the major threats to ecosystems and to endangered species and are extremely difficult to be managed after their establishment. Therefore, scientific efforts should be directed to understand the mechanisms underlying alien species success. To this respect, making data and tools readily available, through appropriate activities of e-Science, appears crucial to address emerging issues and open up new perspectives for a better understanding and wiser conservation and management of biodiversity. Within this context, LifeWatch, the European Virtual Biodiversity Research Infrastructure, has the commitment to become a reference for researchers, policy makers and public authorities. Recently, it has promoted a European-level case study designed to assess the vulnerability of ecosystems to alien species. LifeWatch endorses this SIL session, with the aim to contribute achieving a better understanding and managing of biological invasions, along different perspectives, from genomics to macroecology. Three main issues will be addressed, from single species, to individual populations and whole ecosystems: i) the state of the art of biological invasion in freshwaters, ii) the comparison across typologies (from inland to coastal marine aquatic ecosystems), iii) the e-Science approach to alien species impacts.
Chairs
Angela Boggero, CNR-Institute of Ecosystem Study, Italy
Monica Santamaria, CNR-Institute of Biomembrane and Bioenergetics, Italy
Alberto Basset, University of Salento, Italy
Should you wish to participate to the conference, the call for abstract is open until 1 February 2016.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.