LifeWatch ERIC Scientific Community Meeting

Rome, Italy, 27ā€“29 May 2019.Ā LifeWatch ERIC will hold its first Scientific Community Meeting Event,Ā aiming at gathering the scientific Community of scientists and developers to boost discussion on the most promising lines of scientific development. The three key themes are: a)Ā Biodiversity and Ecosystem Theory;Ā b)Ā Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning and Services;Ā c) Data Analysis, ModellingĀ andĀ Disruptive Technologies.

Moreover, LifeWatch ERIC wants to identify the major scientific gaps to be addressed over the next decade. It will highlight key societal challenges that biodiversity and ecosystem science must address, proposing nature-based approaches for natural resource managers and decision-makers.

Working sessions will follow the Plenaries, with the aim of promoting user community involvement. In turn, LifeWatch can understand their needs in terms of services and VRE developments, to facilitate and support their research.

More information is available on our minisite: www.lifewatch.eu/scientific-community-meeting

International Summer School Data FAIRness

Lecce, Italy, 1ā€“5 July 2019. The International Summer School Data FAIRness in Environmental and Earth science infrastructures: theory and practice is offered in conjunction with ENVRIPlus and focuses onĀ modern semantic approaches to properly describing and interrelating different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among biodiversity and ecosystem resources and researchers.

In recent years, one of the major challenges in Environmental and Earth Science has been managing and searching larger volumes of data, collected across multiple disciplines. Many different standards, approaches, and tools have been developed to support the phases of the Data Lifecycle (Data Acquisition, Data Curation, Data Publishing, Data Processing and Data Use).Ā ThisĀ five-day summer school concentratesĀ on the specific Data FAIRness phase in Environmental and Earth sciences.

The courseĀ gathers together what areĀ considered to be the most interesting perspectives of our time, toĀ offer a cutting edge and high-quality programme, aimed at fostering a rich and lively intellectual exchange.

First Dahlem-type Workshop

Seville, Spain, 14-18 October, 2019.

The LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative starts with its 1st Dahlem-type Workshop on current and future challenges of Non-indigenous and Invasive Species (NIS)  in Europe,

LifeWatch ERIC needs to boost its construction and to engage users in developing their research activities into the Virtual Research Environments of the e-Science Infrastructures, by clearly demonstrating and documenting the added value these new technologies bring to address challenging hot topics.

LifeWatch ERIC has started an Internal Joint Initiative with the exact aim of addressing these needs and reinforcing the positioning of LifeWatch ERIC within the biodiversity and ecosystem scientific community. Non-indigenous and Invasive Species has been selected as the subject for the demonstration cases.

LifeWatch Belgium Users & Stakeholders Meeting

Users & Stakeholders Meeting

Brussels, Belgium, 19-20 November 2019.Ā Get ready for two days of networking and collaboration at the LifeWatch Belgium Users & Stakeholders Meeting at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences!

DuringĀ Day 1Ā (19/11), which will be open to all users and stakeholders of the Belgian LifeWatch infrastructure, a multitude of interesting user stories will showcase the individual projects that are going on and the immense progress LifeWatch Belgium is making. Furthermore, we are honoured to welcome LifeWatch CEO, Christos Arvanitidis, to this event!


Day 2Ā (20/11) will be an extended project meeting with the Belgian LifeWatch partners, and will be by invitation only. This meeting will focus on discussing internal affairs concerning LifeWatch Belgium, input towards the upcoming LifeWatch General Assembly and closer collaboration between the ongoing LifeWatch projects in Belgium.

Venue:Ā 
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Vautierstraat 29
1000 Brussels
Belgium


Start/End:Ā 
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 – 09:30 to Wednesday, November 20, 2019 – 16:00


Link:Ā 
http://lifewatch.be/en/lifewatchbe-users-stakeholders-meeting-november-19-20-2019

Second Dahlem-type Workshop

Rome, Italy, 2-6 December 2019.Ā 

The second Dahlem-Type workshop will focus on the technical implementation of those e-tools relevant for the validation cases agreed during the first workshop held in Seville.

The workshop will have two phases:

02-04/12/2019 | ICT technical meeting

05-06/12/2019 | Joint Discussion between ICT and Validation Cases experts

Online registrations are closed.

5th LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly

LifeWatch ERIC

Leuven, Belgium, 11ā€“12 December 2019. LifeWatch ERIC will hold its 5thĀ General AssemblyĀ in the Dirk Boutsgebouw ā€“ VAC in Leuven, Belgium.

Members are invited to register using the form available here. 

EuroLag 9 2020

EuroLag 9

Venice, Italy, 20-24 January 2020. The EuroLag 9 International conference is devoted to science, research and management issues related to lagoons and transitional areas, The 2020 conference is appropriately located in Venice. 

The venue ā€“ the Scuola Grande di San Marco, founded in 1260 ā€“ is located in the heart of the old city and will only hold a maximum of 200 people, and registrations close on 15 December. 

The conference is organised by the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR) of the Italian National Research Council, the Consortium for Lagoon Research (Corila), and the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. The five days of themed sessions and poster events on coastal lagoon science will be complemented by special guided visits to Venice and an exclusive, private (no tourists!) visit to San Marco Basilica prior to the conference dinner. 

Because of the limitations of space, organisation of meetings with international colleagues from all over the world is recommended either before (18-19 January) or after (25-26 January) the conference. Click here for the conference website and here for programme details.

Maritime Industry Workshop

Maritime Industry Workshop

Ostend, Belgium,Ā 23Ā January 2020.Ā The LifeWatch team at VLIZ welcomes delegates from various companies in the maritime industry sector to get introduced to LifeWatch marine activities and services.

As valorization towards industry is considered an important aspect of the project, a Maritime Industry Advisory Board will be installed to advise the project on existing data gaps and future valorization opportunities towards the sector.

All potential industry stakeholders are welcome to this event. Prior registration is required. Register here.

Agenda:
14:00: Introduction LifeWatch marine observations, sensor networks and data systems / Introductie LifeWatch mariene observaties, meetnetwerken en data systemen
15:00: Presentation use cases of LifeWatch services, data and expertise / Voorstelling use cases van gebruik LifeWatch services, data en expertise
15:30: Introduction to the  LifeWatch Maritime Industry Advisory Board (MIAB) / Introductie tot de LifeWatch Maritime Industry Advisory Board (MIAB)
16:00: First discussion regarding expectations and approach MIAB / Eerste discussie mbt verwachtingen en invulling MIAB
16:30: Reception / Receptie.

Venue: InnovOcean Site, Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Oostende, Belgium.

Time & date: Thursday, 23 January, 2020 – 14:00 to 17:00. Please refer to the webpage.

Transfiere 2020

MĆ”laga,Ā Spain, 12-13 February 2020.Ā Transfiere is the biggest professional and multi-sectoral forum for knowledge and technology transfer in Spain, and gathers prominent players in the national and international Research & Development & Innovation ecosystem.Ā Hosted at the Trade Fairs and Congress Centre, MĆ”laga, thisĀ 9th European Meeting on Science, Technology and InnovationĀ is the ideal place for research groups, businesses and governments to build networks, share knowledge and connect with strategic sectors of the economy.

The LifeWatch ERIC stand will showcase its innovative services in biodiversity and ecosystem research to the thousands of participants expected from around the world, and explore potential collaboration with universities, researchers, public administrations and entrepreneurs. A dedicated online networking tool will allow meetings to arranged prior to the event. This year, Canada will be the guest country, presenting the latest R & D & I in the networking, conference programme and commercial exhibition areas of the Forum.

For more information and registrations,Ā click here.

Workshop: Online Bioinformatic Platforms to Support Metabarcoding and Metagenomics Research and Applications

Porto, Portugal, 26-28 February 2020. The pan-European Workshop, held in the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO-InBIO) at the VairĆ£o campus of the University of Porto, Portugal, boasted a very specific title: ā€˜Online Bioinformatic Platforms to Support Metabarcoding and Metagenomics Research and Applications’.

The workshop witnessed more than 30 participants from nine European countries (Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland) with different expertise and backgrounds, ranging from metagenomics and metabarcoding, to ecology and ICT.

The workshop was jointly organised with PORBIOTA/LifeWatch Portugal, DNAqua-Net (dedicated to the protection, preservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and their functions) and the EnvMetaGen project at InBIO (Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology). LifeWatch ERIC supported its organisation as part of its Internal Joint Initiative on Non-indigenous and Invasive Species. The workshop explored the architecture and function of an online bioinformatics platform capable to address as many needs of the scientific community as possible, such as:

1) Checking existing distributed Bioinformatics e-Resources within the LifeWatch ERIC communities of practice,

2) Reaching a common understanding of users’ requirements and needs in Virtual Research Environments, and

3) Proposing an efficient and realistic and engaging mechanism from an ICT perspective, capable of federating those e-Resources within the LifeWatch ERIC VREs.

Examples of evidence-based research were provided by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), MIRRI (Microbial Research Resource Infrastructure), ELIXIR (which unites Europe’s leading life science organisations in managing and safeguarding the ever-growing volumes of data generated), other Research Infrastructures and Bioinformatics initiatives.

The outcome of the Online Bioinformatic Platforms Workshop was a plan with well-identified next steps towards the co-construction of the bioinformatic platform.

Presentations:

Christos Arvanitidis | LifeWatch ERIC – mission and recent developments. Download PDF

RocĆ­o Bautista | Bioinformatic analysis at SCBI. Download PDF

Pedro Beja | Next generation sequencing: Opportunities and challenges of a disruptive techmology for biodiversity assessment and monitoring. Download PDF

Bopco & JEMU | The Barcoding Facility for Organisms and Tissues of Policy Concern & The Joint Experimental Molecular Unit. Download PDF

CIBIO | Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources. Download PDF

CNR-IBIOM | Infrastructure, data and analysis resources. Download PDF

Day 2 Session 3 | What should be the characteristics of online bioinformatics platforms in LifeWatch ERIC? Download PDF

Mafalda Galhardo | Metabarcoding and data processing pipelines. Download PDF 

Juan Miguel GonzĆ”lez-Aranda |  Towards the establishment of a LifeWatch ERIC bioinformatics platform.  Download PDF

Tine Grebenc & NataÅ”a Å ibanc | Slovenian Forestry Institute. Download PDF

Matjaž Gregorič | Spider webs as a source of eDNA. Download PDF

Marta Goberna | Spanish Institute for Agricultural Research, Department of Environment and Agronomy. Download PDF

Pascal HablĆ¼tzel | VLIZ’s ambition for online bioformatic platforms to support metabarcoding and metagenomics research. Download PDF 

Florian Leese | DNA-based aquatic bioassessment in Europe and beyond: Chances and challenges. Download PDF

Jennifer Leonard | Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics Group, DoƱana. Download PDF

Florian Mauffrey | Development of a molecular diatoms index for water quality assessment of Swiss rivers.  Download PDF

Niklas Noll | Going through a metabarcoding workflow – pointing out problems and proposing solutions for a bioinformatics platform.  Download PDF

Alberto Pallavicini | Units of the Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste.  Download PDF

Christina Pavloudi & Haris Zafeiropoulos | LifeWatchGreece Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. Download PDF

Sergei PƵlme | UNITE: Curated and evolving databases for molecular identification and for communicating fungal species. Download PDF