Upscaling biodiversity

upscaling biodiversity bill kunin

“Biodiversity is intrinsically scale-dependent”. Bill Kunin, Professor at the University of Leeds, in this second BioDT Talks tackles one of spatial ecology’s biggest challenges: how do we accurately upscale biodiversity data?

One of the reason that makes upscaling biodiversity challenging is that biodiversity is an unusual variable. Unlike simple additive variables, biodiversity is subadditive: two areas with 6 and 4 species don’t necessarily contain 10 species together due to potential overlap in the species you had in the different samples. This makes scaling from local observations to regional or global assessments particularly complex.

Why does upscaling biodiversity matter? Prof. Kunin explains how it helps us to estimate biodiversity in little-know areas; to predict larger-scale effects from fine-scale experiments; to monitor biodiversity changes across multiple scales; to model spatially realistic futures (e.g. developing more accurate digital twins of ecosystems, linking local and coarser scale patterns); to understand how threats like habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change impact biodiversity differently at various scales.

Enjoy the video on LifeWatching Channel website!

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

Digital Twins solutions for all companies!

Digital Twins solutions for all companies!

What are the barriers still preventing the adoption of ICT technologies by small and medium-sized enterprises?
There are still many obstacles to overcome, such as the high initial costs to develop and exploit Digital Twins, the lack of in-house technical expertise needed to manage and maintain Digital Twin solutions, limitations and fluctuations in human resources available for innovation projects, the resistance to change, the lack of awareness and understanding of the benefits and potential applications of Digital Twins, regulatory and compliance issues. Moreover, companies frequently worry about the time and efforts required to achieve a return on investment from Digital Twin implementations. The uncertainty about measurable economic benefits may prevent them from investing in innovation.

In this sixth and last episode of BioDT Talks, Francesca Flamigni, Innovations Project and Funding Manager at TTTech, shares insights of the Change2Twin project, a collaborative initiative that aimed at accelerating the digital transformation of companies across Europe by harnessing the power of Digital Twin technology.
More in detail, Change2Twin project has crafted a comprehensive framework designed to provide targeted support tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
This framework is based on the best practices developed within the I4MS initiative, which stands for ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs, and comprises an array of services, including training programs, financial incentives, and scalable Digital Twin solutions.

Watch the video and find out more!!

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

Ecological systems: new insights from ecoinformatics

ecological systems

Imagine standing on the edge of a vast forest, its canopy alive with the chatter of birds, the rustle of leaves, and the occasional flash of colour from a darting butterfly. Now picture this forest fading: a vibrant, thriving ecosystem replaced by silence, its trees felled one by one. What would we lose? What might we gain? This scene isn’t a distant possibility – it’s unfolding now. From the peaks of the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans, life thrives. Yet, the biodiversity that sustains humanity is in steep decline. The benefits we once relied upon – clean air, fertile soil, food, and protection – are increasingly uncertain.
With this vivid visualisation of the current biodiversity crisis, Alejandro Ordonez Gloria, Associate Professor at the Aarhus University Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), opens the first episode of the BioDT Talks, a new 6-part series exploring how data, science, and technology are reshaping our response to the biodiversity crisis.

A theme that is very timely with International Biodiversity Day 2025, celebrated on 22 May 2025 under the theme “Harmony with nature and sustainable development”, to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the urgent need to stop its loss, as recognised by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

In this opening talk, Dr. Ordoñez introduces the field of ecoinformatics, where AI, remote sensing, and ecological theory are combined to forecast the future of nature and guide proactive decision-making. From predicting species shifts to building Digital Twins of ecosystems, today’s tools give us a historic opportunity: not just to see what’s coming, but to choose a different outcome.
By illustrating the current, different approaches of ecoinformatics, he underlines how computational models generate plausible scenarios of biodiversity change while highlighting the role of computational approaches in assessing and prioritising conservation actions, allowing policymakers to focus on the most impactful strategies.

“We can no longer afford to be passive observers of ecological change. We must become active drivers of it […] The ecoinformatics toolbox is transforming science from a reactive perspective of change to a proactive perspective of change, one in which we can think about which actions do we need to take to get us to the future where we want to be in. And by doing this, we will be able to model where do we want nature to be into the future”, he says.

Enjoy the video on LifeWatching Channel website!

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

Fighting pandemics with urgent computing in drug discovery

Fighting pandemics with urgent computing in drug discovery

What does computer science have to do with fighting pandemics?
In our fifth BioDT Talks episode, Prof. Gianluca Palermo of Politecnico di Milano reveals how in-silico drug discovery and urgent computing are revolutionising medicine.

With drug development costing up to $2 billion per medication, computer simulations are accelerating research by evaluating thousands of potential treatments against disease targets before expensive lab testing begins.
We all have in mind what happened five years ago during the COVID19 pandemic. During a pandemic, time is a critical factor: finding a medical treatment or a vaccine in short time can limit and reduce the spread of a virus. Well, supercomputers helps a lot in this.
Discover how supercomputers with urgent computing protocols helped combat COVID-19 by tracking viral spread, understanding infection mechanisms, and identifying potential treatments, all at unprecedented speed.

Watch now to see how computational power is becoming one of our most powerful tools against future health crises!

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

A revolution in conservation research with FAIR data and biodiversity Digital Twins

A revolution in conservation research with FAIR data and biodiversity Digital Twins

Remember struggling to find all the data you needed for a research project? You’re not alone!
In our fourth BioDT Talks episode, Joana Castro Paupério, Biodiversity Project Manager at the European Nucleotide Archive (EMBL-EBI), shares how her PhD frustrations with incomplete biodiversity data led to her passion for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles.

Imagine trying to model genetic diversity of European beetles across environments. Would you find all the necessary data? Would you be able to access crucial context information like geographic coordinates? Could you interpret the data correctly on the basis of the information available? Probably not, as unfortunately not all data produced is published in a way that it is easy to find by users. Moreover, data may often be accessible, but hard to find and interpret because it does not have enough metadata or the metadata is not structured in a standardised way.
Joana reveals how making biodiversity data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable is transforming conservation research and enabling effective Digital Twins.

Watch now to discover how the BioDT project is ensuring valuable biodiversity data doesn’t just exist but can be found, understood, and used effectively!

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

Transforming data into new knowledge: data pipelines for biodiversity research

Transforming data into new knowledge data pipelines for biodiversity research

“As a little girl, I was roaming around in the forest in spring, enjoying the fact that the snow had melted.
I grew up in Norway; we have long winters and looking for the spring flower was one of the favourite activities for kids…And looking for Epatica nobilis (Liver leaf) was one of the most important things we did because we got to get in the local newspaper if you were the first ones. We knew about specific places where the snow melted first and we had some hints of leaves etc that indicated that this is the place where we could find this precious flower.”

Remember searching for the first spring flowers as a child?

In our third BioDT Talks episode, Bente Lilja Bye, founder of the research and consulting company BLB, shares how her childhood quests for Hepatica nobilis in Norway and her mother’s meticulous nature diaries evolved into groundbreaking work in biodiversity data science!
The information about the first Epatica nobilis of the year and the “metadata” around these spring flowers, carefully handwritten in her mother’s diary, were her first experience collecting data, and the first repository of her life. An important channel for her to get involved in her current job.

In her talk, Bente Lilja Bye explains in particular why is worth learning about data pipelines and to build Digital Twins for biodiversity.
So, first of all, what is a Digital Twin? A Digital Twin for biodiversity is a sophisticated digital representation of ecosystems, species, and their interactions with the environment. This technology integrates various data sources to create a dynamic simulation that mirrors real-world biological systems. “A simple representation of a Digital Twin is that you have a physical system and a virtual system”, Bente Lilja Bye says. “Data or observations of the physical system are used to create the virtual system. Now, the virtual system is running models etc giving feedback into the physical system and in this way we have a loop called Digital Twin”.

The data is the core of a Digital Twin, we would not have Digital Twins without data. There are currently many sources and many types of data, and the challenge is to collect, harmonise, standardise, processing all this amount of information to put all these different types of data together. Data pipelines are essential for efficiently processing vast amounts of data and providing real-time insights for Digital Twins. In simpler words, they are systems leading from the collection and acquisition of data, to their final transformation into new knowledge or possible decisions. Moreover, data pipelines enable industry, academia, and the public sector to more efficiently share data, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration.

“By being a foundational component of a Digital Twin, a data pipeline represents a transformative approach to biodiversity conservation, offering enhanced monitoring capabilities, improved decision-making processes, predictive insights, and fostering collaboration among stakeholders. And these benefits are instrumental in addressing the pressing challenges facing global biodiversity today”.
Watch the video, and find out how we can transform data into new knowledge.

BioDT is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to develop a digital twin prototype for the study and analysis of biodiversity, in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The Biodiversity Digital Twin prototype provides advanced models for simulation and prediction capabilities, through practical use cases addressing critical issues related to global biodiversity dynamics.
The BioDT Talks is the new 6-part series illustrating how data science and technology are transforming our approach to the biodiversity crisis.
More information on the BioDT Project HERE.
Watch the full playlist on YouTube and find out more!

BioDT presents the new Digital Twin prototype to preserve honey bees’ performance and environmental biodiversity

honey bees

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are crucial pollinators and producers. Despite their key role in agriculture, food production and security, and ultimately in human health and ecosystem well-being, they face multiple threats: habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, pollution, pesticides, pests and pathogens, changes in land use and climate change impacts are putting at risk their survival, causing their decline worldwide. 

On May 25, BioDT presented its prototype Digital Twin (pDT) for Pollinators during the online event Biodiversity in Focus. By combining real-world data with advanced simulation techniques, the new prototype provides practical insights into honey bee performance and honey production by evaluating landscape quality. The goal of the BioDT project – in which LifeWatch ERIC is one of the partners – is to push the current boundaries of predictive understanding of biodiversity dynamics by developing a Digital Twin that provides advanced modelling, simulation, and prediction capabilities.

The DT for Pollinators aims to address honey bees’ challenges, such as intensive agriculture, diseases, and fluctuations in nectar and pollen availability. Based on the BEEHAVE model, this prototype supports use cases involving large input data, like analysing datasets from multiple countries. 

The health of honey bees depends on their environments, where consistent availability of nectar and pollen is vital, particularly during times when mass-flowering crops such as oilseed rape are not in bloom.

This Digital Twin prototype represents a fusion of advanced technology and practicality to allow a generic assessment of agricultural areas for honey bee health, says Dr Jürgen Groeneveld from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig. By providing tools that are accessible, scalable, and adaptable, we aim to empower biodiversity researchers and conservationists in their mission to protect our planet’s vital ecosystems.

On the technical side, the prototype relies on a solid foundation. Custom scripts specify input data and transform it into readable input files. Researchers can deploy all necessary software components into a Docker container image on the LUMI supercomputer and cloud platforms. For more information on its development, you can consult the repository page on GitHub.

In future updates, BioDT plans to include land cover data, land cover types converted into nectar and pollen resources, and weather data, adapting it for diverse geographic areas. This way, researchers and conservationists worldwide could leverage BioDT’s capabilities in their biodiversity conservation efforts. Jesse Harrison, Developer Manager at CSC and former Project Manager of BioDT, highlighted the Pollinators DT’s potential for biodiversity conservation and announced that further versions of this prototype will expand BioDT’s mission beyond honey bee performance. He said to envision the development of further prototype Digital Twins, each addressing critical biodiversity challenges.

Test the first BioDT prototype Digital Twin on pollinator! 
Source: BioDT press release – To learn more about the Digital Twin for Pollinators and to test it, please visit this page: https://biodt.eu/news/first-operational-prototype-digital-twin-biodt

BioDT Annual Meeting 2024: Shaping the Future of Biodiversity Research

BioDT Annual Meeting

LifeWatch ERIC participated in the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Biodiversity Digital Twin (BioDT) project, which took place on 11-12 June 2024 at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. The meeting had a hybrid format, allowing both in-person and remote participation.

The meeting covered the operational models of pDTs (physical Digital Twins) and sustainable pathways beyond the project’s lifecycle. It also discussed outreach, promotion, and training strategies for pDTs, as well as a Winter/Spring School that will take place most likely at the end of February 2025.

Additionally, the BioDT Annual Meeting was an occasion to share and validate progress of the technical architecture of the BioDT project as a whole and the related app, to discuss modelling and embedding scientific models into digital twins focusing on biodiversity, and to analyse data streams aligned with FAIR principles.

To learn more about the meeting, please visit the dedicated web page: https://ssl.eventilla.com/biodt2024

About the BioDT Project

BioDT represented a groundbreaking effort to redefine our predictive understanding of biodiversity dynamics. By leveraging advanced modelling, simulation, and prediction capabilities, BioDT aimed to provide critical infrastructure to drive long-term biodiversity research, facilitate science-driven policy, and enable rapid-response actions. 

LifeWatch ERIC for Blue Innovation at the Port of Cádiz

blue innovation

The Port Authority of the Bay of Cádiz has kickstarted its blue innovation strategy with the Conference ‘Innovation at the service of port competitiveness’, featuring the participation of local, national and international agents in the field of innovation, research and entrepreneurship. Among these were LifeWatch ERIC, Puertos del Estado (Spanish government), the University of Cádiz, Telefónica, Archangelus Systems and Total Maritime Solutions.

President of the Port Authority, Teófila Martínez, who in turn chairs the RETE Association for Collaboration Between Ports and Cities, explained “the need to intensify innovation efforts in order to assume and assimilate the technological revolution and the impact it has on ports. Our goal is to create a culture of innovation and take a proactive role in promoting sustainable development which involves everyone”. José Llorca, responsible for Innovation at Puertos del Estado and the government’s Ports 4.0 Fund, then highlighted the role of the LifeWatch ERIC digital infrastructure as a promoter of change.

LifeWatch ERIC CTO, Juan Miguel González-Aranda, explained how LifeBlock technology, developed by the LifeWatch ERIC ICT-Core, can help integrate biodiversity protection into port development. One way is through ‘smart contracts’ for the port authority to manage the use of natural resources and guarantee compliance with environmental regulations. For example, for the discharge of wastewater, or regulating the use of goods transit areas, or blue carbon tokenisation, or sustainable fishing and smart market management. To this end, all the stakeholders in the port ecosystem would be involved, to generate trust and promote participatory governance in decisions.

Another path that LifeWatch ERIC proposes is the development of a digital twin for environmental impact and monitoring of the marine or coastal ecosystems affected by port activity, in synergy with similar initiatives in Europe such as the BioDT project, in which LifeWatch ERIC is co-responsible for international deployment by creating IaaS, PaaS and SaaS models, through the provision of user-friendly interfaces.

For the Port in the Bay of Cádiz, the following key actions have been identified in order to monitor and control the spread of invasive alien species; the protection of seabed and reef habitats, to help assess environmental quality and ecosystem services in ports, including an ecological assessment of operations such as dredging, and the validation of preventive and corrective mechanisms to improve the quality of water bodies. 

LifeWatch ERIC offers its collaboration for the port’s blue innovation through financial instruments with which it is working, such as within the Horizon Europe programme’s Climate, Energy and Mobility Cluster, on ‘Climate resilient and safe maritime ports’; or the ‘Demonstration of DC powered data centres, buildings, industries and ports’. Within the Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Cluster is the ‘Demonstration of marine and coastal infrastructures as hybrid blue-grey Nature-based Solutions’, and ‘Invasive alien species’. Finally, within Missions – Adaptation to Climate Change, is ‘Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions to protect critical infrastructure from climate change, mainstreaming nature-based solutions’.