Women in Science: LifeWatching TV special feature for International Women’s Day 2025

women in science

Thanks to our daily activities and European projects, we’ve had the opportunity to work with inspiring female researchers, technologists, managers, policymakers and science communication professionals. 

For our International Women’s Day 2025 campaign, we have decided to put them in the spotlight and entirely dedicate the homepage of our LifeWatching TV to the talented women in science we have met over these years, collecting and republishing their interviews.

Some of these women are directly involved in LifeWatch ERIC or its National Distributed Centres, while others are researchers that we’ve had the chance to work with in the context of scientific projects.

We thought this was the perfect opportunity to revisit their work and listen once again to what they have to say, learning more about their expertise and understanding their impact on biodiversity and ecosystem research: from coastal wetlands to fisheries, bat populations to deep-sea observation, animal tracking and behaviour, invasive alien species, phytoplankton, to name just a few examples. After the end of this year’s campaign,these contents will remain available in the new permanent page “Women in Science”.

We have also expanded our efforts, replicating the initiative in our LifeWatch ERIC Podcasts, introducing a “Women in Science” category on our Podcasts page, making it easier to discover interviews and discussions with women scientists and showcase their contributions across various disciplines.

This is simply our way of recognising and celebrating the work of the women we have had the privilege to collaborate with over the years.

Explore our collection of podcasts and interviews here.
Watch the featured videos now on LifeWatching TV.

Meet the Libroscope: LifeWatch ERIC signs the Disentis Roadmap 2024, a new vision to liberate data from biodiversity publications

DISENTIS ROADMAP

LifeWatch ERIC is proud to be one of the 26 first signatories of the Disentis Roadmap: a mission involving some of the world’s leading institutions, experts and scientific infrastructures dedicated to biodiversity information.

These organisations are joining forces to pursue a 10-year roadmap with a unique objective: to “liberate” data existing and presently trapped in research publications. A goal that is fully aligned with LifeWatch ERIC’s mission to provide access and support to biodiversity and ecosystem data, as it helps make what science has provided us accessible and usable.

The initiative aims to enable the creation of a “Libroscope“: a mechanism for unlocking and linking data from scientific literature, to support understanding of biodiversity. This fascinating name evokes the microscope and the telescope: two instruments that previously revolutionised science!

The Disentis Roadmap builds on the 2014 Bouchout Declaration on Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management. Ten years later, the follow up symposium in Disentis (Switzerland), evaluated the progress made since the first meeting, highlighting the need to simplify access to data across research publications and better connect them.

This year, 26 institutions, and 46 individual experts, have signed the Disentis Roadmap, officially setting it in motion on 4th March, 2025. The action plan will take off in the Living Data conference in Bogotá, Colombia in October 2025, addressing specific goals for 2035.

Read the full Press Release to explore the roadmap’s objectives for 2035 and insights from signatories, and access official contacts. Download it here.

Project RESTORE4Cs launches a School Competition about Coastal Wetlands

RESTORE4Cs School Competition

Coastal Wetlands are broadly defined as “areas of saltwater and freshwater located within coastal zones”1. These areas are among the most crucial ecosystems, playing a key role for climate neutrality, biodiversity protection, zero-pollution, and circular economy.

The project RESTORE4Cs recently launched a Serious Game School Competition: a fun and easy way to make school students learn about this fascinating world.

Acting as natural sponges, coastal wetlands are able to regulate the water cycle and mitigate both floods and droughts. Some particular types can actively sequester and accumulate organic carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, they host a range of plant and animal species uniquely adapted to their specific characteristics and soil conditions.

To give you an idea of just how vital they are, here’s an example we recently came across from the US: an initiative called “Wild Mile” (https://wildmile.org/), by the nonprofit organisation Urban Rivers. Volunteers at Urban Rivers are building a floating eco-park on the Chicago River, made up of artificial habitats that actually mimic wetlands, with the objective of restoring the river’s waters to their pre-industrial state. The rapid development of the city and the use of the river’s waters as a channel for industrial shipping in the 18th Century, in fact, had left the river floor in conditions of extreme pollution.

In Europe, coastal wetlands are disappearing at a fast rate (here’s some data collected by RESTORE4Cs in occasion of the World Wetlands Day: https://www.restore4cs.eu/world-wetlands-day-2024/). But let’s focus on the positives! Some of our original wetlands are still holding on and fighting to survive: it is vital that we do everything in our power to protect them.

A lot of effort is already being dedicated to research and policy investments: a good indicator that the scientific and policy communities are becoming increasingly aware of the issue. Another crucial front in the fight to protect these ecosystems is education.

That’s where the Serious Game School Competition comes in. Taking place in mid-April 2025, this engaging initiative invites students aged 12 and older from across Europe to explore the essential ecological functions of wetlands, their role in biodiversity and how they contribute to climate resilience, all through a fun, interactive gaming experience.

Schools and teachers interested in participating can find all details and registration information on the RESTORE4Cs website: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-school-competition/.

If you’re a teacher, or know one who might be interested, don’t miss this opportunity to introduce future researchers to these vital concepts!

  1. Source: RESTORE4Cs 1st Policy Brief: https://www.restore4cs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Policy-Brief_web.pdf ↩︎

ESFRI releases LifeWatch ERIC’s Panel Monitoring Report: Summary and Results of the Analysis

ESFRI Landmarks

In October 2024, ESFRI released its Monitoring Panel Report for LifeWatch ERIC as part of its monitoring as a Landmark Research Infrastructure. ESFRI Landmarks were introduced in the ESFRI Roadmap 2016 as reference Research Infrastructures that guarantee the operational excellence of their Landmark label, including LifeWatch ERIC. 

These Landmarks are pillars in the European Research Area (ERA) landscape, providing services to academic research and supporting development and innovation.

To make sure that RIs meet the standards that qualify them as Landmarks, ESFRI monitors their quality through a specific “Monitoring Implementation Group”. This group has defined some objectives of the monitoring: to maintain regular communication with Landmarks on their long-term development, to carry out individual quality assessment, to identify potential problems and recommend appropriate action, and to collect information on the performance, outputs and impacts of each Landmark. 

In an excerpt of the official document, published at this link, you will find a summary of ESFRI’s analysis, highlighting LifeWatch ERIC’s strengths and areas for improvement. 

This feedback is particularly valuable as it comes from an institution with deep insight into the excellence of Research Infrastructures across Europe, therefore providing important suggestions that we intend to implement in the near future. 

LifeWatch ERIC is the only e-Science Infrastructure in Europe dedicated to biodiversity and ecosystem research, providing FAIR-compliant data and analytical services to researchers. The report provides overall positive feedback, with results in many cases exceeding the KPIs set up for our RI. Areas identified for improvement include the approach to data lifecycle management, financial sustainability, usability of the platform for policy relevance, and gender diversity, an area we are actively addressing through the ongoing revision of our Gender Equality Plan.

As each Landmark is monitored every five years, we are confident that we will make significant progress on the actions recommended by ESFRI before the next review. 

ESFRI is the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach. To learn more about its specific objectives, you can find the public version of the ESFRI Roadmap 2026 here.

Image source: ESFRI official website

LifeWatch Italy Conference 2025

LifeWatch Italy Conference 2025

Wednesday, 29, and Thursday, 30 January will see the LifeWatch Italy team engaged in its Annual Conference 2025 in Rome, hosted at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). This important event brings together researchers to explore the latest research and technological advancements in biodiversity and ecosystem.

Italy is a biodiversity hotspot in Europe and one of the founders of LifeWatch ERIC, hosting its Service Centre in Lecce. The LifeWatch ERIC Italian National Distributed Centre is led and managed by the CNR and is coordinated by a Joint Research Unit, currently comprising 35 members. With over 57,400 animal species and 6,500 plant species, Italian landscapes and protected areas serve as natural laboratories for ecological studies.

LifeWatch Italy’s activities span a wide range of data-driven and technological solutions: from the development of controlled vocabularies and ontologies for data interoperability to ensuring FAIR data and metadata. The infrastructure also supports ICT services, Virtual Research Environments (VREs), Learning Platforms, and Citizen Science initiatives.

This year’s conference will focus on strategic developments for LifeWatch Italy, promoting collaboration with other research infrastructures and relevant national-level projects. Discussions will explore taxonomic and biogeographical data, climate change impacts, and new modelling approaches, alongside research on marine and terrestrial biodiversity, bio-cultural heritage, and ecosystem stressors. The event will also highlight technological innovations, including cloud computing, reference genomes, and new research platforms developed through LifeWatchPLUS.

For the detailed agenda, visit: https://www.lifewatchitaly.eu/conferenza-lifewatch-italia-2025/

Twaite Shad returns to the Scheldt River after 100 years

We recently shared news about the deployment of a network of fish detection devices along the Leie and the Scheldt rivers (you can find the article here). The Institute for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) has been working for years to protect fish species in the Flanders region. It is, in fact, the independent research institute of the Flemish government that underpins and evaluates biodiversity policy and management through applied scientific research.

Today we bring you a success story, one of those unexpected surprises that truly reward researchers for their dedication.

The twaite shad (also known as the “May fish” by locals), is a migratory fish species once completely disappeared from the Scheldt River due to pollution. Notably, it has made a remarkable return in the past decade.

Easily recognised by the six to ten black spots along its body and its forked tail, the twaite shad migrates upriver to spawn between late April and early May, giving it its nickname.

Its comeback has being monitored since 2014 using LifeWatch Belgium’s acoustic telemetry and data loggers to track its movement and habits. A very significant event that says something about the improving quality of water in the Scheldt river and the positive impacts of conservation efforts.

You can read more about this on the LifeWatch Belgium channel.

Fish migration monitoring in the Leie and Scheldt Rivers

Fish migration

Mapping the migration patterns of fish species is extremely important for researchers, as it allows them to offer better protection against various obstacles.

Every year in fact, millions of fish migrate to their spawning and rearing habitats, where they lay eggs and nurture their young. For some, this means swimming thousands of miles before they can reach their destination, often finding areas blocked by human-made barriers such as dams and navigation lock complexes.

When fish cannot reach their habitat, they cannot reproduce and build their population, for this reason it is important to provide effective solutions.

This is the case in the Leie and Scheldt rivers, which flow from the French border to the Netherlands. The Flemish waterway authority, De Vlaamse Waterweg, has tackled the issue by investing in the construction of fish passages to make these barriers more navigable. A study is monitoring the passage of fish through the pathways, in order to assess the impact of human barriers and the success of these mitigation measures.

Researchers from the Institute for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) have spent the last weeks deploying an extensive network of detection devices along the rivers, focusing in particular on six fish species.

Read more about this initiative on the LifeWatch Belgium website: https://www.lifewatch.be/news/new-study-monitors-fish-migration-leie-and-scheldt-rivers

Open applications for Agroecology living labs and research infrastructures

agroecology network application

The Agroecology Partnership project (https://www.lifewatch.eu/agroecology-partnership) aims to facilitate the transition of the agricultural sector towards agroecology in Europe.

Its mission is to address climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and environmental degradation while ensuring profitability for farmers.

LifeWatch ERIC is leading an international team within the project’s WP5 (Data and Monitoring Agroecology Transition) to develop and implement an innovative conceptual framework for the monitoring and evaluation of agroecology transitions.

As a way to achieve the project’s objectives, the European Network of Agroecology Living Labs and Research Infrastructures gathers initiatives that enhance knowledge sharing of agroecology innovations across Europe.

Members of the Network get access to extensive connections with agri-food stakeholders, learning resources and data sharing between living labs and research infrastructures. They also get to cooperate on international projects and participate to the co-creation of process improvements.

The network has opened its first wave of applications for living labs and research infrastructures actively contributing to the agroecology transition: a great chance to connect with similar initiatives, learn best practices, gain visibility, grow and collaborate.

Applications for the membership can be submitted by the 28th of February 2025: you can find the details here.

Highlights from the BES Annual Meeting in Liverpool

BES 2024

From 10 to 13 December 2024, over 1500 ecologists gathered in Liverpool for Europe’s largest conference dedicated to ecology.

The event held particular relevance for LifeWatch ERIC, thanks to a rich programme of Thematic sessions, addressing the biodiversity crisis, nature restoration policies and practices, novels tools and technologies to tackle current challenges, and much more.

This annual meeting also brought together one of the most relevant scientific communities for LifeWatch ERIC’s mission.

Earlier this year, LifeWatch ERIC was featured in the autumn issue of the British Ecological Society’s Niche magazine, reinforcing the strong connection between the research infrastructure and the ecology community (read more here).

LifeWatch ERIC attended the conference with a booth dedicated to research communities facilities, services and resources (including ENVRI-Hub NEXT), and a series of talks dedicated to biodiversity monitoring, conservation strategies, and more.

The booth was a great success, directly engaging more than 300 attendees. A unique opportunity to collect feedback on user needs and research priorities.

Researchers were invited to share their views via brief surveys about the challenges they face and how LifeWatch ERIC’s services could support their work.

The response was extremely positive: 275 scientists and researchers from 33 different countries participated, representing different demographics and career stages, from early-career researchers under 30 to established experts over 60 years old. A great result, that highlights a growing interest in our services and offers insights into the needs, priorities and engagement level of researchers. This will help us to better tailor our services to match the expectations of ecologists, and biodiversity and ecosystem researchers.

The conference also proved to be a powerful engagement tool in involving scientists within the new LifeWatch ERIC flagship initiative, dedicated to its Thematic Service Working Groups (Ecological responses to Climate Change, Animal movement and bio-logging, Biogeography, Biodiversity observatory automation, Habitat mapping and Taxonomy). These groups have the objective to promote collaboration and innovation within the research community. With 67% of respondents willing to join one or more of the thematic working groups, the surveys have been an indicator of the relevance of our thematic services and the desire of researchers to collaborate with the infrastructure.

The feedback and connections made during the conference will help us refining and expanding our services to meet the evolving needs of researchers.

For more information on the Thematic Services Working Groups you can visit this page: https://www.lifewatch.eu/thematic-services-working-groups which will be regularly updated with new developments.

LifeWatch ERIC at the 5th RESTORE4Cs General Assembly

RESTORE4Cs General Assembly

The 5th RESTORE4Cs General Assembly, held from 19-21 November 2024 in the stunning Camargue region of France, brought together project partners and stakeholders to review progress and shape the future of wetland restoration and conservation across Europe. LifeWatch ERIC played a key role in the event, sharing significant developments in communication, digital tools, and policy outreach.

At the assembly, LifeWatch ERIC’s Madeira Scauri, leader of Work Package 8 (Communication, dissemination, and exploitation), provided an update on the second phase of the project’s communication strategy. She revealed the upcoming Camargue Case Pilot teaser and announced the launch of the highly anticipated RESTORE4Cs Serious Game in December 2024. The Serious Game aims to engage a broader audience in wetland restoration through interactive simulations.

The General Assembly was also a change for LifeWatch ERIC to introduce plans for a Summer School, designed for policymakers and the scientific community. This initiative will help bridge the gap between science and policy, furthering the project’s educational and outreach goals.

LifeWatch ERIC also played a crucial role in promoting cross-project collaboration. Madeira Scauri presented the Sister Projects’ joint factsheet, published on the occasion of their joint participation in SERE 2024, as well as a session on cooperation with the REWET project, led by Vanessa Ferreira, which highlighted synergies and operational steps to strengthen partnerships and maximise the project’s impact.

The assembly wrapped up with a successful series of field visits to key sites, including Marais du Cassaïre, Marais du Vigueirat, and the Pont de Gau Ornithological Park, allowing participants to gain local insights into the Camargue wetlands, where the project’s sampling and filming efforts for a documentary were underway.

Stay tuned for more updates on the RESTORE4Cs Serious Game, the Summer School, and other exciting developments as the project continues to progress.

Photo credits: LifeWatch ERIC – Madeira Scauri