Belgium

Contacts

LifeWatch Belgium

  • francisco.hernandez[at]vliz.be
  • +32 59 34 21 30

Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ),
InnovOcean site,
Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Ostend, Belgium

LifeWatch Belgium is a distributed virtual laboratory and is used for biodiversity research and climatological and environmental impact studies. The Belgian LifeWatch node aims to:

  • Design a central LifeWatch Taxonomic Backbone
  • Construct a Belgian LifeWatch Observatory
  • Develop a Belgian LifeWatch e-Lab and Marine VRE
  • Conduct data archaeology
  • Develop an ecotopes database for Belgium
  • Monitor and synthesis ecosystem dynamic descriptors
  • Build an Antarctic Biogeographic Information System (AntaBIS)
  • Develop a Barcoding Facility for Organisms and tissues of Policy Concern (BOPCo).

Download the leaflet to know more about LifeWatch Belgium.

Organisation

Belgium makes varied and complementary in-kind contributions to LifeWatch. 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.

LifeWatch Flanders Team (funded through FWO Vlaanderen)

  • Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) (coordinator of LifeWatch Belgium)
  • Research Institute for Nature and Forests (INBO)

LifeWatch Wallonia-Brussels Team (funded through the Wallonia-Brussels Federation)

  • Earth and Life Institute (UcL)
  • Biosystems Engineering Department (ULg-Gembloux ABT)

Belgian Federal Institutes (funded through the Belgian Science policy office (Belspo)

  • Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
  • Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA)
  • Belgian Biodiversity Platform (BBPf) (which acts as the Belgian LifeWatch Support Committee)

http://lifewatch.be/en/project-belgian-lifewatch-infrastructure

Activities

Access to regional and global biodiversity data systems is facilitated by means of several data services (Belgian LifeWatch E-lab), data publication,  marine and non-marine data archaeology and the construction of a local marine-freshwater-terrestrial observatory.

Furthermore, a central Taxonomic Backbone combines taxonomic, biogeographical, trait and genomic data and disseminates this via web services.

Four ecosystem dynamic descriptors are derived from satellite images. Their weekly average profiles are calculated at a European scale. Furthermore, a database describing homogeneous units of the landscape,ecotopes, has been developed.

Biodiversity.aq is building an Antarctic Biodiversity Information System (AntaBIS), as a thematic LifeWatch virtual laboratory.

The Barcoding facility for Organisms and tissues of Policy Concern (BOPCo) project is setting up a virtual laboratory that uses molecular techniques to identify unknown biological material to species/population level.

Projects

AquaRES
AquaRES

AquaRES was a Belspo funded BRAIN project in which VLIZ, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and RBINS collaborated to set up the exchange between the species registers WoRMS, RAMS and FADA. AquaRES was thus a project related to the Information Species Backbone.

AtlantOS
AtlantOS

The overarching objective of AtlantOS was to achieve a transition from a loosely-coordinated set of existing ocean observing activities producing fragmented, often monodisciplinary data, to a sustainable, efficient, and fit-for-purpose Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing System (IAOOS).

JERICO-NEXT

JERICO-NEXT aims at extending the EU network of coastal observations by adding new infrastructures while integrating biogeochemical and biological observations. The LifeWatch marine observatory and related data infrastructure supports JERICO-NEXT activities in the Southern Bight of the North Sea.

 

 

CCI LC
CCI LC

The overall objective of the CCI LC project (Land Cover Climate Change Initiative) was to critically revisit all algorithms required for the generation of a global land product, and to design and demonstrate a prototype system delivering global land cover information, in a consistent way over years and from various EO instruments.

ASSEMBLE Plus
ASSEMBLE Plus

ASSEMBLE Plus integrates over 30 marine biological stations and installations from various regions of the world's oceans and seas; providing scientists from academia, industry and policy with the services of these marine stations. LifeWatch BE and GR deal with data management and analysis.

BioVeL
BioVeL

BioVeL (Biodiversity Virtual e-Laboratory) is a virtual e-laboratory that supports biodiversity research using large amounts of data from cross-disciplinary sources. As part of the LifeWatch Marine VRE, a Taverna Server was installed at VLIZ, adding to the sustainability of the workflows developed during the BioVeL FP7 project.

GlobCorine
Globcorine

GlobCorine demonstrated an automatic service that can generate in a consistent way land cover/land use maps and land change indicators, based on a CLC-compatible legend. CLC is derived from a visual identification and classification of landscape objects using high resolution images.

Category

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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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