Marine SABRES in Fairs at EU Researchers’ Night 2025

Marine SABRES inFairs - European Researchers Night 2025

On September 26, 2025, LifeWatch ERIC will participate in the European Researchers’ Night, contributing to its programme and engaging with participants, thanks to its research stand “Marine SABRES in Fairs”.

On this occasion, LifeWatch ERIC will present the project Marine SABRES, organising the initiative “Marine SABRES in Fairs: protecting and restoring biodiversity, sustainable blue economy, and ecotourism”.

Marine SABRES – Marine Systems Approaches for Biodiversity Resilience and Ecosystem Sustainability, is a research project funded by the European Union that aims to conserve and protect biodiversity by integrating healthy, sustainably-used ecosystems and a resilient blue economy. To make Ecosystem-based Management more achievable and implementable, Marine SABRES is comprehensively studying and analysing marine social-ecological systems to design a new, simpler framework for managing the many activities and pressures on the marine environment.

At the ‘Marine SABRES in Fairs’ stand, it will be possible to discover the project’s results and materials: thematic videos, the documentary trailer and, in preview, a demonstration of the scientific game dedicated to students (aged 10-18) to explore the links between human activities, changes in marine ecosystems and impacts on people’s well-being. The tour includes posters, brochures and best practices that have emerged from the Marine SABRES approach, with simple and replicable tools for administrations, operators and communities. There will be interactive sessions for questions, with areas dedicated to schools and families.

For more information, please visit the official European Researchers’ Night ERN Apulia Med 2025.

About the European Researchers’ Night

The European Researchers’ Night is a Europe-wide public event, which displays the diversity of science and its impact on citizens’ daily lives in fun, inspiring ways. The European Researchers’ Night aims to bring research and researchers closer to the public, promote excellent research projects across Europe and beyond, increase the interest of young people in science and research careers, showcase the impact of researchers’ work on people’s daily lives.

Children, young people, families and the general public at large will have the chance to meet researchers and discover research, science and innovation through a wide range of science shows, hands-on experiments, games, quizzes, competitions, exhibitions, digital activities, research stands, interactive workshops, debates and round tables, scientific-informative seminars, stories of researchers and discoveries, etc.

More information about the project

Biodiverse marine ecosystems provide flows of ecosystem services that lead to goods and benefits for society, support human well-being, and enable economic sustainability and resilience. Yet the intensification of human activities, both on land and at sea, is accelerating marine biodiversity loss globally and within Europe. The exploitation of natural resources, tourism, coastal development, trade and transport, aquaculture, fisheries, agriculture and waste management — all place pressures on marine and coastal ecosystems, undermining biodiversity and the many benefits that it provides. To mitigate these pressures, effective management of marine and coastal environments is essential, not only to achieve international biodiversity goals (such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy), but also in combating the threats of climate change (e.g. ocean warming, sea level rise, acidification, increased storminess) and environmental degradation (e.g. pollution and eutrophication).

Marine SABRES is an EU-funded research project that aims to restore marine biodiversity and support a sustainable blue economy by increasing the uptake of ecosystem-based management in Europe. To make ecosystem-based management more achievable and implementable, we need to comprehensively study and analyse marine social-ecological systems. Marine SABRES is therefore co-developing and testing a simple socio-ecological system in collaboration with local people in three European marine regions: the Arctic Northeast Atlantic, the Tuscan Archipelago, and Macaronesia.

For more information, please visit Marine SABRES official website: www.marinesabres.eu

The cave-dwelling olm: a sentinel for environmental change – LifeWatch Slovenia on Nautilus Magazine

ProteusWatch_Gregor_Aljancic

ProteusWatch vLab’s Research, part of the LifeWatch Slovenia Consortium, has been featured on Nautilus Magazine.

Deep beneath Europe’s karst landscapes lives the olm (Proteus anguinus), a pale, blind amphibian once thought to be the offspring of dragons. Elusive and long-lived, it is exquisitely sensitive to changes in groundwater quality and temperature, making it a living gauge of ecosystem health in subterranean aquifers that supply drinking water to millions.

Since 1960, the Tular Cave Laboratory in Kranj, Slovenia, has advanced olm research and conservation from a unique underground facility. Building on innovations that ranged from early CCTV systems to digital infrared video, the team has  revealed the behaviour and ecology of olm, from its unique cave-related sensoric capabilities to reproduction. Yet caves are dangerous and difficult to access, and lab studies can only go so far.

To bridge this gap, the research team from the Tular Cave Laboratory together with their colleagues from Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU (both partners in LifeWatch Slovenia Consortium), and in partnership with LifeWatch ERIC Virtual Lab Innovation Center (the Netherlands), have mapped out plans for the ProteusWatch Virtual Lab: a virtual cave laboratory that brings long-term, in-situ monitoring to the karst underworld. Combining low-impact video analysis, machine learning, advanced sensors, imaging sonar and underwater drones, ProteusWatch aims to observe the olm’s behaviour – movement, foraging, interactions and breeding – in real time, without disturbing its fragile habitat. A second virtual lab, the Karst Groundwater Virtual Lab, will track groundwater dynamics to assess ecosystem stability and pressures of pollution.

“The main reason for building the cave laboratory 65 years ago was to circumvent the inaccessibility of Proteus’ natural habitat and allow long-term observations under more controlled conditions,” said Gregor and Magdalena Aljančič. “With advanced technologies, the idea of studying olms in the wild is becoming more and more realistic. The new approach would not only be more efficient but could also save lives.”

Christos Arvanitidis, CEO of LifeWatch ERIC, is backing the team’s efforts as a new leading example of accessible, multidisciplinary science. “You can show your data to other communities in [a] way they can take advantage of, prove to them that this type of research can be done, and they can perhaps use their own data, for the same kind of analysis,” he says. “That’s amazing, because it leads progressively to a kind of knowledge which is produced by as many data, from as many domains, as possible.”

Read the full article on Nautilus Magazine.

Photo credit: Gregor Aljančič.

LifeWatch ERIC in Costa Rica with ENERGYTRAN: advancing sustainability, innovation and open science

Energytran - LifeWatch in Costa Rica

In September 2025, LifeWatch ERIC will play an active role in two major events in San José, Costa Rica, reaffirming its commitment to advancing sustainability, innovation, and open science, while strengthening international cooperation between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.

On September 18th, 2025, LifeWatch ERIC will participate in the High-Level Meeting on Energy Transition and Climate Sustainability, hosted at the Consejo Nacional de Rectores (CONARE). International experts will be presenting the preliminary results of the ENERGYTRAN project, which seeks to foster collaboration between Europe and Latin America to address shared challenges in the fields of energy transition and climate action.

The meeting will gather a wide range of high-level participants, including representatives of international cooperation organizations, national institutions, and academia, strengthening dialogue between Europe and Latin America on the pressing issues of climate sustainability and energy transition.

The programme will cover a diverse set of themes, from international cooperation in energy transition and sustainability, to the role of public institutions and academia, concluding with the presentation of preliminary results of the ENERGYTRAN project. LifeWatch ERIC, through Maite Irazabal, will contribute to this final block, showcasing the preliminary results of the project.

Following the High-Level Meeting, from 22 to 26 September 2025, LifeWatch ERIC will also take part in the E-learning Course: “Environmental Challenges and Open Science – an Approach from Innovation and Technology.” The course, organised in a hybrid format (in-person in Costa Rica and virtually via Zoom), will bring together researchers, research infrastructures professionals, public administration, civil society, and private sector actors from Europe and Latin America.

The programme, featuring speakers representing a wide range of prestigious institutions, will explore how open science can accelerate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the development of sustainable solutions to pressing environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation.

From LifeWatch ERIC, Julio Paneque will lead a session focused on open and FAIR science tools and use cases, presenting innovative approaches developed within the ENERGYTRAN project and beyond.

The hybrid design of the course, combining on-site sessions in Costa Rica with online participation ensures broad accessibility and inclusivity across regions, offering a valuable platform for dialogue between Europe and Latin America on the role of open science in addressing today’s most urgent environmental and societal challenges.

Through its contributions, LifeWatch ERIC reaffirms its mission to advance research and innovation for biodiversity, sustainability, and climate resilience, while fostering stronger transatlantic cooperation and the integration of open science practices.

For more information about the ENERGYTRAN project, please visit the official website: https://energytran.oei.int/

European network releases White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation collaboration to advance the UN SDGs

White Paper

A network of legal entities based in Europe, coordinated by LifeWatch ERIC, has released a white paper that presents a collaborative commitment to leveraging scientific knowledge and digital innovation, in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Emerging from discussions at the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Science Summit (SSUNGA79), the white paper is the result of joint work by a network of partners with global interests in biodiversity, ecology, engineering and beyond. These organisations have decided to combine their expertise through European initiatives such as Research Infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), Digital Twin projects and academic publishers. Their aim is to provide a strong base for collaboration and to contribute strategically to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) targets. Moreover, they also seek to forge an international alliance to further integrate biodiversity conservation into the UN Summit of the Future priorities and the post-SDG agenda.

The starting point is clear: biodiversity can no longer be treated as a siloed issue. It is foundational to climate resilience, public health, food security, and economic stability. The three interconnected planetary crises facing humanity (biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution) represent the most urgent challenges of our time. Addressing them requires collective efforts from scientific communities, as well as the public and private sectors and policymakers.

In this context, Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) are crucial, because the complex transformations we need demand data-driven decision-making, cross-sectoral collaboration, and multidisciplinary and cross-domain research frameworks.

The network had already demonstrated this holistic approach during a workshop held in New York, in September 2024, as part of the SSUNGA79. Building on that foundation, the organisations now focus on their shared impact, rather than individual achievements. They have identified the K-M GBF as a testbed for contributing to the SDGs, based on long-track experience in European initiatives.

The K-M GBF itself focuses on seven strategic considerations, and twenty-three specific targets for its implementation. In the white paper, the network has been working collectively on the seven strategic considerations, outlining practical ways to contributing to each of them.

Moreover, the paper expands to other UN STI priorities and sets the basis for a global alliance: a convergence point for diverse knowledge systems, from cutting-edge digital tools and genomic research to traditional ecological practices, and as a mechanism for aligning efforts across thematic domains, such as climate, health, food, and equity. 

Read the full white paper here: https://riojournal.com/article/168765

NELOS divers will now access WoRMS from their digital dive log

NELOS divers

NELOS, the Flemish diving federation, has recently integrated WoRMS (the World Register of Marine Species, supported by LifeWatch Belgium), into its internal platform DIVES: a Digital Verification System used to log tens of thousands of dives each year.

This integration marks a very important achievement, because divers will now be able to record the marine species that they come across during their observations, in direct connection with the WoRMS database!

The WoRMS database provides an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, controlled by taxonomic and thematic experts and continuously updated. Its editorial management system, in fact, includes one expert for each taxonomic group, who controls the quality of each entry. The editors can also invite specialists of smaller groups to revise specific species.

An interesting characteristic of the new integration with DIVES, is that the platform adapts to common marine species names used in Dutch, and through a built-in search function, it automatically provides the scientifically correct version of the name.

This integration has a great potential to support future research by becoming a valuable data source, supporting citizen science and marine biodiversity through simple digital tools.

Read more about this on LifeWatch Belgium:

https://www.lifewatch.be/news/nelos-divers-use-worms-digital-dive-log-step-toward-citizen-science

MARBEFES Autumn School 2025: Call for Applications now open!

Great news! The MARBEFES Autumn School 2025 has now opened its Call for Applications, giving 20 participants the possibility to book one of the limited places by 31 August.

MARBEFES (MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services) is a EU-funded project aiming to evaluate and characterise the links between marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services and the resulting societal goods and benefits in coastal communities.

The Autumn School “Protecting marine biodiversity for nature and humans” will take place in Seville (Spain) from 8 to 10 October 2025. It will offer participants travel, accommodation and lunch (see terms and conditions), for the duration of the programme, and has the objective of presenting one of the main project’s results: a set of easy-to-use-tools to help practitioners and policy makers maximise the ecological value and optimise a sustainable socio-economic use of the marine system for current and future generations.

The school programme will consist of four training modules:

  1. Assessing biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services
    1. Assessing ecological structure and functioning
    2. Biodiversity and climate change
    3. ARIES tool (assessment component)
  2. Risks and impacts
    1. Assessing risks and hazards to marine biodiversity
    2. Broad-scale measures of biodiversity and habitat quality 
  3. Valuing nature
    1. Ecologically valuing biodiversity – system levels
    2. Socio-cultural valuation and biodiversity 
    3. Socio-economic valuation of biodiversity
    4. ARIES tool (valuation component)
  4. Decision-making for management
    1. Social-ecological systems analysis in marine management
    2. Biodiversity management and the role of decisions support systems DSS

If you are a student, early career scientist, young researcher or early career practitioner interested in biodiversity and ecosystem assessment and measurement, and ecological, social and economic evaluation, apply from this page: https://www.lifewatch.eu/marbefes-autumn-school-2025!

Environmental Challenges and Open Science: online course by ENERGYTRAN

Energytran Environmental Challenges and Open Science

As part of the EULAC-ENERGYTRAN project, we are excited to announce the launch of the pilot e-learning course “Environmental Challenges and Open Science”, which will take place from 22 to 26 September 2025 in  San José, Costa Rica.

This hybrid course will be delivered in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation into English and Portuguese, and is free of charge, offering a unique opportunity for participants to explore how open science practices can address global environmental issues, with a special focus on the Latin American and Caribbean context.

Location: In person, San José (Costa Rica) – 25 seats available. Online: 15 virtual seats.

Registration: by 15 August 2025 from this registration form.

For more information contact energytran@oei.int, download the course brochure here [Spanish], [English], [Portuguese], or read more here: https://www.campaign-index.com/view.php?J=iv7892t04fzb2djrGkjA10gfLSBA840oUpoOQCUrJE7rs&C=MPSlNSIgSS8OmvptUmZEiA

RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series: training for scientists and policy makers

RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series

Join the RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series of trainings for scientists and policy makers in November 2025!

RESTORE4Cs assesses the role of restoration action on wetlands capacity in terms of climate change mitigation and a wide range of ecosystem services using an integrative socio-ecological systems approach.

The trainings will take place in Malaga (Spain), from 3 to 6 November, and they will focus on the main project output: a digital Decision Support System (DSS) that will provide stakeholders and wetland practitioners at all levels with more reliable estimation of cost and benefits in order to drive and prioritise wetlands restoration actions.

The two programmes are tailored respectively for researchers and wetlands and restoration managers (as early users of the toolbox), and for experts involved in decision-making processes concerning coastal wetlands and protected areas:

  • RESTORE4Cs Autumn School 2025 for the Scientific Community: November 3-6, 20 participants
  • RESTORE4Cs Training for Policy Makers: November 5-6, 10-15 participants

The Call for Applications will open in August. For more and upcoming details on the detailed programme, travel conditions and applications, follow up on the RESTORE4Cs website: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-autumn-series-2025-save-the-date

Weever fish sevenfold increase reported by SeaWatch-B might be linked to warmer waters

weever fish

SeaWatch-B (https://www.vliz.be/projects/seawatch-b), the VLIZ citizen science project supported by LifeWatch Belgium, has observed that the weever fish counts were seven times higher this year, compared to the same period of time (April to June) of 2024. This venomous species buries itself in the sand and stings through its dorsal or gill-cover spines, and its surge along the Belgian North Sea coast seems linked to warmer waters.

The aim of the SeaWatch-B beach observation network is to address the lack of reliable long-term data that allow to identify trends in the ever changing landscape of the North Sea. In fact, during the last 50 years, the North Sea has noticeably changed, warming twice as fast as the global average for ocean and seas.

This fast change has affected especially cold-water species, causing an increase in animals and plants originating from the Atlantic Ocean or further south. Through the description and evaluation of the long-term evolution of this shifts, SeaWatch-B can provide science with the necessary data to inform and advise policy.

Trained volunteers have been conducting standardised surveys along various costal transects, four times a year since 2024, to provide data on beach usage, marine life, sea temperatures, pollution and early dune formation, and they will issue a report in 2026.

Read more about the weever fish increase on the LifeWatch Belgium website: https://www.lifewatch.be/news/sevenfold-increase-stinging-weever-fish-observed-seawatch-b

New release of Metadata Catalogue!

Metadata Catalogue

We are thrilled to announce the new release of the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue (https://metadatacatalogue.lifewatch.eu), a standard-based information management system based on GeoNetwork 4.2.11.

The system is designed and implemented to enable access to several resources from a variety of external providers, represented in the Catalogue as “groups”, through descriptive metadata, enhancing and promoting the information exchange and sharing among organisations and research infrastructures.

The Catalogue is operational since 2020: its main goal is to increase collaboration within and among organisations, in order to reduce duplication and enhance information consistency and quality. It also aims to improve the accessibility of a wide variety of resources along with the associated information, organised and documented in a standard and consistent way.
Moreover, the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue allows (upon validation and verification) the creation of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for resources that do not have it, by exploiting the GeoNetwork – DataCite connection.

The system allows to manage metadata related to five kinds of resources: Datasets, Research Site, Services, Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and Workflows by using the EML 2.2.0 and a customised ISO 19139 standards respectively. The new release adds a sixth one to the list, that is the “Training resource”, whose metadata schema is based on the EOSC training profile to ensure and improve the resource discoverability.
This version also includes significant performance improvements, bug fixes, and user interface upgrades to make your experience smoother and more intuitive.

Moreover, with this release, you can now explore several new functionalities:

  • a more user-friendly editor with new functions to easily create metadata records (copy to function, prefill utility, validators, etc.);
  • a direct connection with EcoPortal Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies to address the metadata inconsistency or incompleteness challenge;
  • a full redactional workflow to support and validate the entire publication process with appropriate roles and email notifications;
  • an easy and improved approach to require the DOI;
  • the FAIRness assessment tool, that allows to assess the FAIRness of the entire catalogue, by resource type and on specific metadata record;
  • the continuous monitoring on reachability of URLs;
  • the possibility to create new metadata profiles via user interface;
  • more info for the users in terms of metrics and KPIs;
  • direct connection with the LifeWatch ERIC Help Desk knowledge base to show the relevant FAQs.

The APIs are available here (https://metadatacatalogue.lifewatch.eu/doc/api/index.html). The new version of the documentation is under development and will be published soon. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us at service.centre[at]lifewatch.eu.