Open Science Conference 2022

Open Science Conference

8 – 10 March 2022, Online.

LifeWatch ERIC CEO Christos Arvanitidis will be presenting at the online Open Science Conference with a presentation entitled “Science Cluster Projects in EOSC Future project: A turning point towards the synthetic knowledge by the scientific communities using the EOSC Infrastructure”.


The presentation provides the framework of activities of the Science Cluster Projects in the project EOSC Future. Five Science Clusters come with ten Science Projects which target to current societal challenges (e.g. COVID-19 and Climate Change impacts) and implement a multidisciplinary and cross-domain approach by taking part in the making and using the next-generation Infrastructure of EOSC. This approach attempts to bring down current barriers between scientific disciplines and domains and bring different scientific communities to work together by using the new attributes of the EOSC Infrastructure. The challenges, practices and solutions theses Science Projects are facing are discussed.

Register here.

Transfiere 2022

Transfiere 2022

The biggest professional and multi-sectoral Forum for knowledge and technology transfer that takes place in Spain, and that gathers the most relevant players in the national and international R&D&i ecosystem.

This year, as every year, LifeWatch ERIC will be among the participants, waiting to welcome you at its exhibition booth!

African Union – European Union Summit: A Science Agenda

au-eu summit

Online, 14 – 18 February 2022.

The AERAP Africa-Europe Science Collaboration Platform will organise side events at the AU-EU Summit on 14 – 18 February 2022. The purpose of the meeting will be to promote awareness of the contribution of collaborative research and development as a critical aspect of EU-Africa relations and collaborations, in particular in addressing global challenges together.

The general topics for the Summit side event will include:


1. The Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, NDICI, also known as Global Europe. The Communication from the Commission on the Global Approach to Research and Innovation is a key paper: ….to serve as a guide in implementing the international dimension of the new EU programme for civil research and innovation, Horizon Europe, and its synergies with other EU programmes, in particular the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe.

2. How to accelerate an inclusive approach to collaborative research, recognising African leadership and the untapped potential of women and girls to contribute to science and innovation.

3. Consider how to leverage synergies between funding mechanisms led by the EU and others including development finance provided by the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and others.

4. Raise awareness of the unforeseen and unintended impact of regulations on potential research collaborations with Africa. These include data privacy, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the In-vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), the Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) and the Clinical Trials Regulation. Good regulation cannot act as a barrier between African and EU and other researchers. African nations need to build their enabling regulatory environment and regulatory compliance with the EU.

5. Indigenous knowledge can be a force for good and part of the equation when promoting Africa-Europe science collaboration, including developing relevant information services and linking indigenous knowledge to data capacities; patent data. WTO TRIPS Art. 66.2 is critical to supporting technology transfer.   

6. The meeting will also consider the importance of the SDGs in this context, including enabling local and community (UN Local 2030) science as part of the global response.

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met in Kigali, Rwanda, on 26 October 2021, took stock of progress regarding the priority areas adopted during the last AU–EU Summit held in 2017, in Abidjan. This press release provides some guidance on priorities for the AU-EU Summit on 17-18 Feb 2022.

To join this event please register here. For more information, please see the AERAP website.

Empowering Biodiversity Research Conference II

Empowering Biodiversity Research

Tervuren, Belgium, 24–25 May 2022.

The Empowering Biodiversity Research conference, EBR II, will take place 24–25 May 2022 at the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren. It will take you on a journey into the world of biodiversity data standards and tools and will inform you on the latest developments in the world of Biodiversity Informatics, on the state-of-the-art in initiatives like GBIF, LifeWatch ERIC, DiSSCo, etc. and how you can benefit from them.

EBR II aims to build a bridge between Biodiversity informatics and its relative “Bioinformatics” and investigate what their crossover can bring to Biodiversity Research. Genomic information meets digital taxonomy.

Want to present a poster? Submit your abstract until 31 March 2022.

Find more information about the Empowering Biodiversity Research Conference on their website.

LifeWatch Belgium is one of the co-organisers and will be presenting following topics:

  • LifeWatch Belgium
  • From remote sensing and GIS to model-oriented databases
  • The LifeWatch Species Information Backbone
  • Biodiversity.aq / POLAAAR
  • BopCo
  • CATREIN
  • LifeWatch Fish Acoustic Receiver Network

In particular, LifeWatch VLIZ will be organising a workshop on Bringing Together Marine Biodiversity Environmental and Maritime Boundaries.

Venue: 
AfricaMuseum
Leuvensesteenweg
133080 Tervuren
Belgium

Registration has been prolonged until 29 April 2022 – see the EBR website for more details.

Stay tuned for another workshop in September on Research Data Management!

Blue-Cloud Hackathon

Blue-Cloud-Hackathon

Online, 7–9 February 2022.

The Blue-Cloud Hackathon is an open invitation to marine scientists & researchers, data scientists, ICT experts, innovators, students, and anyone who is passionate about the Ocean to explore and test Blue-Cloud: A new, Open Science platform for the marine domain offering a wealth of data, analytical tools and computing power to support you in developing solutions for a safe, healthy, productive, predictive and transparent Ocean.

Participants will be challenged to develop applications that contribute to improving knowledge of marine ecosystems; support the transition to a greener, blue economy; advance Ocean literacy; and/or enhance international collaboration towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

Register here.

5th edition of the Big Seashell Survey

BigSeashellSurvey

All along the Flemish and Dutch coasts, 19 March 2022.

Who isn’t fascinated by shells on the beach? Picking up shells, admiring them and trying to find out the story behind the find. And if at all possible, to give science a helping hand at the same time. That is what the Big Seashell Survey is all about!

On Saturday 19 March 2022, the Big Seashell Survey will take place, as part of the LifeWatch Belgium programme. It is the fifth time this citizen science initiative has been organised. In each of the ten coastal municipalities, shell experts will help you collect and identify your hundred beach shells at the counting stations between 10 am and 4 pm. And if hundreds of enthusiasts do this, we all learn a lot more about these fascinating sea creatures. Experience or not, everyone can become a marine citizen scientist for a day!

For the first time this year, comparisons will be made between the shells found on Flemish beaches and those of the Netherlands. On the same day, the natural history museum Naturalis in Leiden will be holding a big seashell survey as well, on the beaches of the coastal province South Holland – as part of the event Leiden2022 – European City of Science. Are you also curious whether we will see big differences?

In addition, families with children can go to three provincial visitor centres (Duinpanne, Raversyde Anno 1465 and ZWIN Nature Park) for a playful introduction to shells (workshop in Dutch only). Afterwards, they will be fully prepared to collect and process a sample of shells at a counting station.

Find more information about this event on www.groteschelpenteldag.be (in Dutch only).

Subscribe now on the website of EOS Iedereen Wetenschapper and receive the newsletter (in Dutch only) with the necessary information and keep up to date on the results (registration is free and not obligatory).

The Big Seashell Survey is an initiative of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), EOS Wetenschap magazine, the Province of West Flanders, Natuurpunt, Strandwerkgroep, Kusterfgoed and the 10 coastal municipalities. Initiative within the framework of LifeWatch Belgium.

IntEcol2022

Intecol2022

Geneva, Switzerland, 28 August – 2 September 2022.

Frontiers in Ecology: Science & Society

Important dates:

31 January 2022: registrations opening

31 January 2022: abstracts submission opening

31 March 2022: abstracts submission deadline

1 April 2022: forums & workshops call deadline

31 May 2022: deadline for earlybird registration

Please visit the website for more information.

Designing EOSC training programmes for institutions

EOSC Future

Online, 26 January 2022.

Workshop

On 26 January, the EOSC Future project is organising a workshop on ‘Designing EOSC training programmes for institutions’. This brainstorming session will take place between 15.00-16.30 CET.  

The goal is to get input on:

  • what institutions need to know to get the most out of EOSC
  • what EOSC can provide to institutions and researchers
  • how to integrate institutional services into EOSC
  • how institutions could facilitate and enable EOSC uptake.
Calling all institutions

Representatives from various institutions are invited to join us and provide input on the curriculum of an EOSC training programme (2022-2023): universities, research-performing organisations, national laboratories, research institutes, libraries, data initiatives, data stewards, and more.

Registration

Registration is open here.

EOSC Future Software Webinar

Software Webinar

Online, 1 March 2022.

Starting in February 2022, EOSC Future (one of the projects in which LifeWatch ERIC is currently involved) will organise ‘ask me anything’ webinars.

On the first Tuesday of every month, participants will have the chance to ask questions about a variety of EOSC services and resources.

During these exclusive Q&A sessions, resources and resource categories available on the EOSC platform will be presented, discussed and, in some cases, tested out.

The session on software will take place online from 14.00-15.00 CET.

Ask me anything about…

The EOSC Future ‘ask me anything’ webinars aim to encourage uptake among users as well as show potential service providers how their resources could be featured through EOSC.

For each session, EOSC community members, experts and project coordinators will present an EOSC resource. As needed, there will be a demonstrative use case to show how a specific type of resource can be accessed and used via the platform. For all webinars, particular emphasis will be placed on answering any and all questions from the audience.

Registration

Register here for the software webinar.

Visit the EOSC Future website for updates on upcoming webinar topics and dates.