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!

Enhancing Biodiversity Access through Collaboration

We are delighted to announce the collaboration between LifeWatch ERIC and OpenAIRE, aimed at advancing Open Science. By joining forces, we will enhance the accessibility of Open Science, improve the FAIRness of LifeWatch ERIC research and enrich the OpenAIRE Graph.

Open Science is gradually becoming the modus operandi in research practices, shaping the way researchers collaborate and publish, discover, and access scientific knowledge. Scientists are increasingly publishing research results beyond the article, to share all scientific products generated during an experiment, such as metadata, data, analytical services, etc.

LifeWatch ERIC and OpenAIRE proudly signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sustain and accelerate Open Science. They commit to enhance their Open Science activities by improving the FAIRness of the LifeWatch ERIC research and enriching the OpenAIRE Graph. Both organisations have joined forces to work on EOSC projects, with the OpenAIRE Graph playing a crucial role in aggregating data sources and connecting metadata such as funding information, data, publications, software, and other unique identifiers (PIDs). Through this collaboration, the combined efforts of Lifewatch ERIC and OpenAIRE will enhance the overall data quality presented on the EOSC Portal.

As a result of this collaboration, all publications, datasets, research projects, software and other outputs of LifeWatch ERIC will now be made accessible through an OpenAIRE CONNECT gateway. Moreover, a MONITOR service with a set of configurable indicators and tools will be made available to simplify research monitoring and evaluation, while measuring and increasing the uptake of Open Science practices.

Sustaining flagship project outputs that provide the infrastructural backbone of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and open data discovery is a priority to both organisations. These efforts will also play key role in realising a meaningful European Open Science Cloud for research communities, building upon the work that is already undertaken in other projects, such as EOSC-FUTURE, FAIR-IMPACT, BioDT and OpenAIRE Nexus project. 

“Providing access to the world’s biodiversity content, services and communities in one click is LifeWatch ERIC’s vision. The signature of this Memorandum of Understanding is yet another milestone to this direction, by fostering synergies and complementing each other, both OpenAIRE and LifeWatch ERIC will have a more significant impact and valuable contribution to the acceleration and integration of Open Science and FAIRness within the European Research Area and beyond, providing even more innovative and interoperable tools for our research communities”, Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC Chief Executive Officer.

“This partnership aims to bring together the biodiversity communities closer to Open Science in practical ways, through shared infrastructure, bringing economies of scale, and building trusted relationships. OpenAIRE can only learn from LifeWatch ERIC so as to calibrate our services to respond to the real needs of this vibrant community”, Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE CEO.

About:

LifeWatch ERIC: LifeWatch ERIC is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium providing e-Science research facilities and services to scientists investigating biodiversity and ecosystem functions in order to support society in addressing key societal challenges linked to climate change and resource efficiency, food security and agriculture, sustainable development, energy and health. LifeWatch ERIC’s vision is to become the Research Infrastructure providing access to the world’s biodiversity content, services and communities in one click.

OpenAIRE: OpenAIRE is a Non-Profit Partnership, established in 2018 as a legal entity, OpenAIRE AMKE, to ensure a permanent open scholarly communication infrastructure and support research in Europe and beyond. OpenAIRE is making Open Science happen. Collectively and in practical ways. Its fields of expertise and activities include services, policies and training. Operating since 2009, OpenAIRE is an integral part and a leading force behind the European Open Science Cloud developments.

OpenAIRE Nexus: The Horizon 2020 OpenAIRE-Nexus project, a consortium of 11 partners, brings in Europe, EOSC and the world a set of services to implement and accelerate Open Science and tools to embed in researchers’ workflows, making it easier for them to accept and uptake Open Science practices of openness and FAIRness.