SERE 2026: LifeWatch ERIC attends the European Conference on Ecological Restoration

SERE Conference 2026

Last week, members of LifeWatch ERIC Jorge Osman and Cristina Huertas-Olivares attended the SERE 2026 Conference, the 15th edition of the European Conference on Ecological Restoration, organised by the University of Brest’s Geoarchitecture Laboratory in close collaboration with SER-Europe and the ‘REVER’ network.

The main objective of this event was to share knowledge and strengthen links between stakeholders in ecological restoration, with a focus on ecological, social, and political considerations.

The conference tackled all aspects of restoration, across different types of ecosystems and territories, including some usually less well-integrated topics, such as the restoration of ecological networks (particularly dark infrastructure) and marine ecosystems.

Moreover, the scientific programme dedicated particular attention to the restoration of wetlands and coastal ecosystems, the application of European nature restoration legislation and the implementation of National Restoration Plans.

These topics are particularly relevant to the RECUP-DAS project, which aims to support the restoration and sustainable management of areas affected by mining activities, through an integrated approach that combines ecological restoration, monitoring, data management, and decision-support tools.

In this context, the participation in SERE 2026 provided an opportunity for LifeWatch ERIC members involved in the project to follow the latest developments, experiences and approaches in ecological restoration, and to exchange knowledge with researchers working across different ecosystems.

Jorge Osman, Scientific Project Manager, and member of the RECUP-DAS Project, attended the conference in Brest to learn from the international experiences presented during the event, including a specialised course on “Adaptive Restoration Planning Using DSS-AWERE”. The knowledge and methodologies gained through this training may prove valuable for the RECUP-DAS project, in particular in relation to the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of future ecological restoration actions in the areas affected by mining activities.

Attending SERE 2026 and the specialised training provided an opportunity to broaden the project team’s knowledge, explore relevant approaches, and strengthen connections with the wider ecological restoration community.

RECUP-DAS is co-funded by the European Union through the Andalusia ERDF Programme 2021–2027.

For more information, visit: https://sere2026.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

LifeWatch ERIC joins ECSA 61: the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association Conference 2026

ECSA 61 (2)

From 24 to 27 August 2026, a global, multidisciplinary community of researchers and professionals is gathering in Belgium to discuss the urgent challenges posed by the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution – with threats to biodiversity representing a particularly major concern for both the planet health and human societies.

This is, in fact, the focus of “ECSA 61: Bridging the gap between science and policy in estuarine and coastal marine biodiversity: the way forward“.

Organised by Elsevier and the ECSA Association, the conference features sessions and workshops across four main topics: Physics, Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and the Human Dimension. The focus is on international collaborative actions, in particular across maritime areas, where there is urgent need to assess and manage threats, and to plan future initiatives that ensure a sustainable use of estuaries, coasts, and seas.

Building on the results of several Horizon Europe projects, this is also an opportunity to showcase the most recent advances in coastal marine research, and their application for European and international policies. For the first time, ECSA 61 also includes a “Science-meets-Policy” day on 27 August, providing an opportunity to discuss research findings with managers and decision-makers.

LifeWatch ERIC members Joaquin Lopez-Lerida, Cristina Huertas-Olivares, Julio Paneque, and CEO Christos Arvanitidis are attending the conference, contributing to two Special Sessions and presenting two posters:

In the Special Session “Toolboxes and Decision Support Systems for marine and estuarine management needs, uses and misuses”, chaired by Anita Franco (International Estuarine and Coastal Specialist Ltd, UK), they present the MARBEFES project toolbox, which integrates ecological, economic, and social analyses of marine biodiversity, together with the project partners.

In the Special Session “Environmental DNA for coastal and estuarine biodiversity monitoring and assessment: connecting scientific innovation with policy needs”, chaired by Jan Pawlowski (Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland), and Raffaele Siano (Ifremer DYNECO, France) they present tools for integrating citizen scientists into genomic observatories, to enhance coastal marine biomonitoring and ecological assessment, as well as operational eDNA workflows for biodiversity monitoring in coastal ecosystems within LifeWatch ERIC.

They also present the following posters: “Integrating decision support systems and toolboxes through the European Research Infrastructure Consortium LifeWatch”, and “From eDNA metabarcoding to operational marine biodiversity products: workflows within LifeWatch ERIC”.

Finally, they will also take part in the General Session on “Coastal and estuarine biodiversity and ecosystems”, on 26 August, where they will propose a holistic understanding of European marine biodiversity and the human communities that live within it.

For more information on this event and the full programme, visit: https://www.estuarinecoastalconference.com

Tides of Balance: the new documentary by Marine SABRES on the conservation of marine ecosystems

Marine SABRES video documentary

The EU-funded project Marine SABRES is preparing to launch Tides of Balance, a video documentary on the importance of protecting the delicate balance between marine biodiversity and the communities that depend on it. Marine SABRES, acronym for MARINE Systems Approaches for Biodiversity Resilience and Ecosystem Sustainability is dedicated to improving the management of Europe’s oceans and seas. Part of this effort involves bringing scientific research closer to the public, showing what it means to live with the sea, and why healthy marine ecosystems are essential for both nature and society.

The documentary is built on the voices and experiences of researchers, stakeholders, and local communities. Their stories engage a reflection on how small, practical actions can contribute to protect marine life in the face of climate change and the environmental transformations rapidly affecting our planet.

Tides of Balance follows scientists and coastal communities across Europe as they work together to understand – and respond to – these threats. Directed by Fabrizio Lecce, the documentary is set across three regions, the Tuscan Archipelago, the Arctic Northeast Atlantic and Macaronesia. Moving between landscapes and cultures, it offers an in-depth perspective on the intertwined relationship between people and the sea.

Through interviews, field research, and wildlife footage, it explores issues such as the impact of climate change on fisheries, the pressures of tourism, and the effort to find a balance between conservation and economic needs, between protecting the environment, and sustaining the local communities.

The documentary will soon be available on the LifeWatch ERIC Science Channel:
https://www.lifewatching.tv/tv-show/marine-sabres.

Stay tuned!

With the Marine SABRES team and:

  • Sveinn Agnarsson – Professor at School of Business – University of Iceland
  • Thor Sigfusson – Founder and Chairman of Iceland Ocean Cluster
  • Juana Ojeda García – Secretary of the Fishermen Association of Agaete & President of the Coastal Action Group of Gran Canaria
  • Raúl García Brink – Councillor for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Knowledge at Cabildo de Gran Canaria
    Island Government of Gran Canaria
  • Yonathan Ojeda Santana – Delegate in the Canary Islands at ARCOS Nautical Academy
    and the Madrid Federation for Motorboating
  • Javier Zaera Fernández – Owner of Spirit of the Sea

15th International Polychaete Conference: the role of RIs in Polychaete Biodiversity Science

IPC15 Conference

From 27 to 31 July 2026, the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum of Frankfurt (Germany) is hosting the 15th International Polychaete Conference (IPC15), bringing together researchers and students working on all aspects of polychaete biology.

From systematics and morphology, to ecology, physiology, development and evolution, each day of the conference is centred around a specific aspect of polychaete research, and is introduced by a keynote talk:

  • Thomas Bartolomaeus, from Bonn University in Germany, introduces “Morphology and Physiology”;
  • Joana Zanol, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, introduces “Taxonomy, Systematics and Phylogenomics”;
  • Monika Bright, from Vienna University in Austria, introduces “Ecology, Biodiversity & Conservation”;
  • Elaine Seaver, from Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience – USA, introduces “Model Annelids & Evo-Devo”.

The programme includes 15-minute contributed sessions and a poster exhibition. Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC’s CEO, is attending the Conference and presenting the abstract “From Ecology to Omics: Dataset Publication and the Role of Research Infrastructures in Polychaete Biodiversity Science“, a work involving also Daniel Martin and Rafael Sardá from the Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB, CSIC), Spain.

The talk analyses current shifts in the way marine biodiversity knowledge is produced, disseminated, and reused, taking Polychaete research as an ideal model for the investigation of these dynamics. According to this comparative analyses, genetic/genomic datasets are associated with substantially higher publication growth rates than conventional ecological datasets, particularly since the 2000s. These patterns may suggest a stronger amplification potential of properly published, standardised, interoperable, and reusable datasets, where FAIR-compliant publication practices, and the facilitating role of Research Infrastructures, have the potential to enable long-term scientific reuse of knowledge. The full abstract is available in the IPC15 Book of Abstracts.

For more information about the conference, visit: https://polychaete-association.com/ipc15-frankfurt

Join the public session of the OntoPortal Alliance 5th Workshop, in September 2026

OntoPortal Workshop Public Session

The OntoPortal Alliance is a consortium of research and infrastructure teams dedicated to promoting semantic and ontology services, in science and beyond, based on the open, collaboratively developed OntoPortal open source software (https://ontoportal.org).

The teams participating in the Alliance develop and maintain several openly accessible semantic resource repositories. This includes, among others, LifeWatch ERIC’s EcoPortal: an online space designed to collect biodiversity and ecosystem semantic resources and provide the necessary services for enabling discovery and interoperability.

From 21 to 25 September, members of the Alliance and invited guest will meet for the OntoPortal Workshop 2026 in Paris, France, hosted by the Observatoire de Paris (home to the OntoPortal-Astro team). This collaborative workshop, now at its 5th edition, revolves around technical, content, and management sessions (the details of the programme will be announced in the coming weeks). The workshop’s main goal is to consolidate the OntoPortal Alliance organisation and shared agenda.

Moreover, the organisers have also scheduled an online public session, taking place on Wednesday, 23 September from 14:00 to 17:00 CEST. It consists of a general introduction to OntoPortal, and its relation with Research Infrastructures, Data Spaces, AI and users, followed by an open Q&A session. The meeting will end with a hands-on tutorial on how to use OntoPortal.

The online workshop is suitable for those who already use an OntoPortal appliance, and also for anyone who is interested in semantic technologies for FAIR data and interoperability, such as ontology repositories, FAIR semantic artefacts, and knowledge graphs: an opportunity to discover the ecosystem, hear from community members and discuss future directions.

The workshop is completely free, but registration is required from the form at this link in order to receive the Zoom connection details by email: https://zfrmz.eu/bAXGoKYQgWZwTw27fEPr.

For more information, visit: https://ontoportal.org/happenings/news/2026/06/23/ontoportal-workshop-2026-announced.

Project RECUP-DAS members at the University of Huelva for the 3rd Executive Monitoring Committee meeting

RECUP-DAS Monitoring meeting

On 24 June, the Faculty of Experimental Sciences at the University of Huelva hosted the third Executive Monitoring Committee meeting for the RECUP-DAS project, an initiative co-funded by the European Union through the Andalusia ERDF Programme 2021–2027.

The aim of RECUP-DAS is to apply DAS (Dispersed Alkaline Substrate) technology to reduce the presence of metals resulting from acid mine drainage and to develop advanced scientific monitoring and digitalisation capabilities that will enable the assessment and tracking of the environmental recovery of the River Odiel.

The meeting was attended by Susana Benavides, Director-General for Water Resources at the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and Javier Marcial de Torre, Managing Director of the Andalusian Environment and Water Agency (AMAYA), organisations which are collaborating on the project alongside the University of Huelva and LifeWatch ERIC.

During the meeting, progress was reported on the design and planning of the new DAS plant planned for the area around Mina La Poderosa, as well as the status of the work that will enable a comprehensive assessment of its environmental impact. Among them are the development of an advanced environmental monitoring system; the integration and scientific analysis of data; and the development of digital solutions that will enable land-use managers and the scientific community to assess the progress of the environmental recovery of the river Odiel.

The day concluded with a visit to the laboratories of the Mineralogy and Environmental Geochemistry Unit at the University of Huelva, led by José Miguel Nieto, principal investigator of the Tharsis Group and a leading figure in the development and application of DAS technology in the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

About RECUP-DAS:

RECUP DAS is a project co-funded by the European Union through the Andalusia ERDF Programme 2021–2027, and launched in January 2026 as a result of a collaboration agreement between the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, the University of Huelva and LifeWatch ERIC. With a budget of 10.4 million euros, it falls under Specific Objective 2.9 of the Andalusia ERDF Programme 2021–2027, within Priority 2D STEP, which is aimed at promoting clean technologies, the ecological transition and the protection of biodiversity. As well as tackling a long-standing environmental problem linked to the discharge of water contaminated by mining activities into the ocean, the project incorporates a significant circular economy component. In this regard, research will be carried out into the reuse of solid waste generated following the treatment of acid mine drainage, as this waste may contain critical metals of strategic interest to Europe.

More info: http://lifewatch.eu/2026/01/28/recup-das

FAIR2Adapt secures EOSC Gravity funding and launches FAIR Solution webinar series

ROHub and FAIROs

FAIR2Adapt (https://www.lifewatch.eu/fair2adapt) is a multidisciplinary Horizon Europe project coordinated by LifeWatch ERIC, aiming to enable the development of comprehensive, and scientifically-sound climate adaptation strategies and plans, by transforming data into actionable knowledge.

The project has recently been selected for funding under the EOSC Gravity Inter Projects Grants call. The funded initiative, ROH-ON (https://eosc.eu/horizon-europe-projects/roh-on), will onboard two core FAIR Digital Object services -ROHub (https://www.rohub.org) and FAIROs (https://ostrails.eu/fairos) – into the EOSC Federation through the EOSC Polish Node (EOSC-PL) over the next six months.

Led by Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), with LifeWatch ERIC contributing through its connection to the OSCARS-FIESTA project (https://oscars-project.eu/projects/fair-image-analysis-across-sciences), ROH-ON establishes sustainable FAIR infrastructure for the Climate Change Adaptation community. This creates a concrete onboarding pathway for further FAIR2Adapt services.

In parallel, FAIR2Adapt launched its FAIR Solution webinar series, offering practical insights into the FAIR tools and workflows developed as part of the project. Recent episodes cover the FAIRification of urban flood risk data across Hamburg and Bremen; the use of the TIB Knowledge Loom and Knowledge Dashboard to transform scientific findings into actionable insights for city planners; and an AI-assisted literature review and claim-extraction pipeline that will support Portugal’s National Adaptation Hub.

Additional webinars will be released in the coming months.
Watch the full series on the FAIR2Adapt YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EOSCFair2Adaptproject

Highlights from BEeS 2026: Four days of biodiversity science in Plovdiv

BEeS 2026 Conference

From 7 to 10 July, the biodiversity and ecosystem research community gathered in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for LifeWatch ERIC’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference (BEeS 2026), bringing together 216 registrants from 28 countries (and co-located with LifeWatch ERIC’s General Assembly).

Across four days of scientific exchange, discussions, and hands-on activities, researchers and infrastructure experts explored how digital technologies (including artificial intelligence) have the potential to shape the future of biodiversity and ecosystem research.

As LifeWatch ERIC’s flagship event, each edition of BEeS is hosted by one of its Distributed Centres, and this year the spotlight was on LifeWatch Bulgaria, with the conference taking place at the Agricultural University – Plovdiv (AUP). The event opened with welcoming remarks from AUP Rector Prof. Boryana Ivanova, and Vice-rector Prof. Dimo Atanasov, alongside Prof. Alberto Basset, Interim Director of LifeWatch ERIC’s Service Centre, and Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC’s CEO.

The expertise of the Bulgarian Distributed Centre inspired many of this year’s conference topics, and provided the ideal setting for the official launch of the LifeWatch ERIC’s Thematic Service Working Group on Agroecology. During this pre-conference session on 7 July, the Working Group members worked together to align agroecological priorities and digital services, and to define the future roadmap and action areas of the WG.

The pre-conference programme also included updates from the other Thematic Services Working Groups: an open discussion with coordinators presenting their current activities and exploring future priorities.

From 8 to 10 July, the conference moved into its main scientific programme with 5 keynote sessions from Prof. Tatyana Bileva (Agricultural University Plovdiv), Dr. Dessislava Dimitrova (IBER-BAS), Prof. Carl Beierkuhnlein (University of Bayreuth/Universidad de Granada), Prof. Vladislav Popov (Agricultural University Plovdiv) and Dr. Anne Fouilloux (LifeWatch ERIC). The Key Notes focused on biodiversity conservation, responses to climate change, agroecology, as well as new frontiers for eScience. The speakers bios and summaries of each keynote are available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2026-meet-the-speakers.

The contributed programme featured 70 talks distributed over several parallel sessions covering 12 scientific topics (the Book of Abstracts will be published and announced soon!). These contributions showcased the wide breadth and ranges of application of current biodiversity and ecosystem research, from ecological and environmental modelling, to data infrastructures and emerging digital tools. Presentations slides (only those where permission for publication has been granted by the authors) are available online on this page: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2026-presentations.

Beyond the contributed sessions, BEeS 2026 offered opportunities for practical learning and community engagement. Participants joined 6 Masterclasses, 11 Training Sessions, a documentary screening, networking sessions, and the BioBEeS, a citizen science bioblitz dedicated to documenting Bulgaria’s animal, plant and fungal biodiversity. The initiative, launched by LifeWatch Italy, concluded during the conference Social Dinner with the announcement of the two winners: Lorenzo Braga and Sara Strah.

Acting as a platform for international collaboration in biodiversity and ecosystem research, BEeS 2026 has raised many positive comments among participants. One of them, shared in the post-conference feedback read: “This conference demonstrated that to save nature, we must first understand it in detail. Thanks to platforms like LifeWatch ERIC, science now has the digital senses to decipher ecological crises and offer real, timely technological solutions”.

We are already looking forward to the next edition. Until then, stay tuned for updates!

Processing open weather radar data in an operational pipeline

IRAC 2026 (1)

From 24 to 26 June 2026, the University of Amsterdam hosts the 5th International Radar Aeroecology Conference (IRAC 2026: https://hirad.science/irac-2026).

This event covers the latest international developments relevant to the use of different types of radars to monitor and understand flying animals, and this year it includes an optional two-day workshop taking place before the conference, on the use of weather radar for applications in aeroecology.

On this occasion, researchers from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics presented their latest work: processing weather radar data from across Europe to create vertical profiles, revealing the movements of animals migrating through the skies.

High-quality radar data is only available for a few days, so workflows must run regularly to capture it. That’s why LifeWatch ERIC teamed up with these researchers to build a new feature in our software, enabling scientists to schedule their workflows automatically, and ensuring vertical profiles are generated while the data is still available.

You can read the full abstract here: https://hirad.science/irac-2026/abstracts/#bakr

Exploring Ocean Connections Through Interactive Science with “Marine SABRES in Fairs” in Iceland

MarineSABRES in Fairs - Iceland

On 7 June 2026, the “Marine SABRES in Fairs” initiative took part in the Fishermen’s Day celebration (Sjómannadagurinn) in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, contributing to a public outreach event organised by the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (Hafrannsóknastofnun – Hafró), with the support of LifeWatch ERIC for Marine SABRES activities.

The annual celebration, deeply rooted in Iceland’s maritime culture, brought together a broad audience and offered a valuable opportunity to engage the public with marine science. In this context, Marine SABRES and the ICEWATER projects set up an interactive space dedicated to marine ecosystems, fisheries, and the relationship between people and the ocean.

Marine SABRES focused on topics such as food webs, ecosystem connectivity, fisheries, marine research, and the human dimension of marine systems, while ICEWATER highlighted coastal ecosystems and marine biodiversity. Visitors were invited to explore these themes through a combination of visual materials, informal discussions, and hands-on activities.

Throughout the day, visitors were introduced to the Marine SABRES project through presentations, visual displays, and interactive activities, including the serious game developed by LifeWatch ERIC. Participants could build marine food webs, explore fish otoliths (ear bones) used by scientists to estimate fish age, learn about cod anatomy, discover how researchers study the ocean using research vessels and scientific equipment, observe live phytoplankton through a microscope connected to a display screen, and take part in a range of hands-on activities and puzzles.

The programme also extended outdoors, where visitors could explore a fish exhibition featuring a variety of species, including crabs, cephalopods, and deep-sea organisms. Many also had the opportunity to visit Hafró’s newest research vessel, Þórunn Þórðardóttir, and learn more about marine research at sea.

The event welcomed a steady flow of visitors throughout the day, including families, students, tourists, and local residents. It provided an excellent opportunity to showcase Marine SABRES research in an accessible and interactive way, demonstrating how science communication can strengthen ocean literacy and foster dialogue between researchers and society. The combination of hands-on activities, visual storytelling, real scientific material, immersive underwater footage, and direct interaction with researchers encouraged visitors not only to learn about marine ecosystems and fisheries, but also to discuss how people, science, and the ocean are connected.

Take a look at our photogallery and relive the highlights of the day, exploring fisheries, marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and ocean research.

We would like to thank all volunteers and collaborators from the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute for their contribution to the event, and especially Sandra Rybicki for the collaboration and for providing the summary text and photographs.

For more information about the project, visit Marine SABRES official website:
www.marinesabres.eu