Programme

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Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users

The ENVRI Community International Summer School 2022 "Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users" will take place in Lecce, Italy, from 10–15 July. 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.

Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub

Programme

Please click on the tabs below to see the full programme day-by-day.

Trainers

Adamaki

Angeliki Adamaki


ICOS

Riccardo Bianchi_v3

Riccardo Bianchi


LifeWatch ERIC

Nicola_ridim

Nicola Fiore


LifeWatch ERIC

rita gomes

Rita Gomes


IAGOS

Maggie 598x598

Maggie Hellström


ICOS

manca

Maria Teresa Manca


LifeWatch ERIC

Lucia_ridim-1

Lucia Vaira


LifeWatch ERIC

ZhimingZhao20

Zhiming Zhao


UvA

Assistants

Xeni

Xeni Kechagioglou


LifeWatch ERIC

Angeliki Adamaki's Bio

Angeliki Adamaki (PhD) is a scientist and a project manager at the ICOS Carbon Portal and the University of Lund in Sweden. She has been educated in Natural Sciences studying Nuclear Physics and Geophysics, including modern pedagogics and teaching of the exact sciences. As a researcher she worked with catalogue statistics, data quality controls, data analysis and probabilistic modeling in Statistical Seismology. For the last 5 years she has been working for European Projects with a particular interest in Open Science practices, FAIR data management and interdisciplinary research.

Riccardo Bianchi's Bio

Riccardo Bianchi obtained his joint MSc in Big Data Engineering from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2020. Currently, he is a research associate at the LifeWatch vLab & Innovations Centre. His research interests include distributed and parallel systems, workflow systems as well as scientific data management.

Nicola Fiore's Bio

Nicola Fiore is the ICT Coordinator of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre. He is Dr. Eng. Computer Science and PhD in Computer Engineering. He has 17 years of working experience in IT, in the field of the design and development of Information Systems in both the private and public sectors, and 10 years of accredited professional experience in the area of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Bioinformatics research. His research activities include the definition of common policies, models and e-infrastructure to optimise technological implementation; definition of workflows; and coordination, harmonisation, integration and interoperability of data, applications and other services. He is one of the member of the Vocabulary Services Interest Group leading the Ontology Market Place working group in the framework of the Research Data Alliance.

Rita Gomes's Bio

Rita Gomes is a Software Engineer with a strong focus in Data Science. Having majored in Information Technologies and in later Data Science, she has worked for different industries during several years, in fields like telecommunications and insurance. Driven by her passion for the environment, she joined IAGOS almost 2 years ago, where she mostly works with software development and data analysis, in a close connection with scientists. She is currently taking an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and is the technical co-lead of the exciting ENVRI-Hub project, where she gets to work with all the ENVRI community.

Maggie Hellström's Bio

Maggie Hellström (PhD) is a scientist and data management specialist at the ICOS Carbon Portal and Lund University, Sweden. For the last decade, Maggie has been working with research data management questions for ICOS, and the wider community of European research infrastructures in environmental and Earth sciences (ENVRIs). Her special interests include Open Science and FAIR, persistent identification & citation of research resources, and designing & delivering training on how to best manage research data.

Maria Teresa Manca's Bio

Maria Teresa Manca is a computer engineer and training officer at the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre in Lecce. Maria Teresa is an Oracle Database Certified Specialist, is certified in Prince 2 Foundation Project Management, and for almost fifteen years she has been working in IT companies in the field of software development and team coordination. Among her experiences in waterfall and agile development is the implementation of java web services, big data manipulation, and the analysis, design and development of information systems.

Lucia Vaira's Bio

Lucia Vaira is the Web Portal Officer of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre. She is a Computer Engineer and received her PhD from the University of Salento in 2016. Her research interests include (meta)data modelling, data warehouses, bioinformatics, and all aspects related to the main issues existing when dealing with data (security, quality, incompleteness, inconsistency, integrity, uncertainty, etc.). She has more than 10 years of experience in training and education for courses dealing with information systems, databases and information security. She is author of more than 30 scientific publications and serves as Programme Committee member of several workshops and conferences in the Computer Science field. 

Zhiming Zhao's Bio

Zhiming Zhao is an assistant professor at University of Amsterdam (UvA). He leads the “Quality Critical Distributed Computing” research team in the group of Multiscale Networked Systems (MNS) at the System and Networking Lab (SNE). His research interests include big data management, Cloud and edge computing, software engineering, and blockchain. He leads the development support WP in ENVRI-FAIR and the VRE development in the LifeWatch ERIC Dutch Virtual Laboratory Innovation Centre (VLIC). He is also the UvA PI in SWITCH, ENVRIplus, ARTICONF and several other projects.

Xeni Kechagioglou's Bio

Xeni Kechagioglou is the Ontology Developer of LifeWatch ERIC. She has a PhD in Urban Planning, an MSc in Geoinformatics and a BSc in Biology, and has been part of the INSPIRE GeoPortal team, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and the American Citizen Science Association. Semantic Web Technologies has been the thread connecting all her fields of interest, for data and software interoperability and for knowledge organisation, exploration and findability.

Policy Relevance and Uptake

  • End of May 2026 – Policy-brief to demonstrate the application of habitat-based mapping in supporting EU strategies (e.g., Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Law).

Mapping user requirements

  • End of January 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines addressing ecological responses to climate change;
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.
Greece

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.

Visit Greece webpage
Italy

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.

Visit Italy webpage
Netherlands

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.

Visit Netherlands webpage
Portugal

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.

Visit Portugal webpage
Slovenia

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.

Visit Slovenia webpage
Spain

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.

Visit Spain webpage
Bulgaria

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.

Visit Bulgaria webpage

Implementing services

  • End of January 2025 – Internal distribution of a questionnaire on the most used/relevant model resources in the WG member research activity;
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.

Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building

  • End of December 2025 – Create a shared repository of guidance documents, tools, templates, and data resources accessible to WG members and broader communities.

Organising WG workshops and conferences

  • End of January 2025 – Setting priority research lines and contributions to the BEeS 2025 LifeWatch Conference for the session on the “Ecological responses to climate change”;
  • March/April 2025 (TBD) – Workshop ‘Ecological modelling and eco-informatics to address functional responses of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate change’ co-organised with the University of Salento;
  • 30 June – 3 July 2025 – Participation to LifeWatch 2025 BEeS Conference on “Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis”.

Fund raising

  • End of January 2025 – Establishing a WG Committee on scouting project application opportunities and fundraising.

Meetings, Webinars, International Conferences & Networking (2025/2026)

  • Organising and participating at discussions on emerging technologies in biodiversity monitoring;
  • Organising webinars on machine learning, eDNA analysis, and automated data collection;
  • Fostering collaboration between researchers, technologists, and decision-makers.

Collaborative Research & Case Studies (2025/2026)

  • Conducting pilot projects to test new monitoring methods;
  • Publishing scientific and popular science papers and reports on advancements in biodiversity assessment.

Data Standardisation & FAIR Principles Implementation (2025/2026)

  • Developing best practices for data curation and sharing;
  • Ensuring that biodiversity data aligns with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) standards.

Development of VREs for Ecosystem Simulation (2026)

  • Creating virtual models of ecosystems to predict environmental changes;
  • Enhancing conservation strategies through AI-driven simulations.

Mapping Requirements and Gap Analysis

  • End of December 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines Ecosystem services mapping.

Methodological Alignment and Innovation

  • End of January 2026 – Online working table on mapping standards, classification systems, and indicators across members;
  • End of January 2026 – Catalogue of advanced techniques (e.g., remote sensing, GIS modelling, and machine learning) for scalable, habitat-based ecosystem service mapping;
  • End December 2026 – Methodological framework to support methodological innovation through joint development and testing of mapping approaches, especially linking ecosystem service supply and demand.
Belgium

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.

Visit Belgium webpage