That’s a wrap! Marine SABRES at the EU Researchers’ Night 2024

LifeWatch ERIC presented the project Marine SABRES at the European Researchers’ Night, a unique event to meet researchers, learn more about their work and get closer to their world for one night (and beyond). LifeWatch ERIC organised in particular the first Marine SABRES fair, that is, the initiative “Marine SABRES in fairs: biodiversity conservation and restoration, sustainable blue economy and the benefits of ecotourism”.

More than 100 people, including enthusiastic children, young people, families and the general public at large, passionate university students and researchers visited our stand and learned more about how to restore marine biodiversity and support a sustainable blue economy by increasing the uptake of ecosystem-based management in Europe (see our photo gallery here).

More in detail, during the event LifeWatch ERIC presented results and activities carried out in the framework of the project, with a special focus on this simple socio-ecological system framework designed and developed with the active support and participation of local stakeholders in three European marine regions, where researchers are developing and testing ways to balance varying combinations of conservation priorities and economic activities. The booth promoted best practices and examples, fostered by the project’s approach, of sustainable use of marine resources and tourism, raising awareness on the importance of governance solutions to address the impacts of future economic and climate scenarios.

The event was also an opportunity to premiere the last trailers of Marine SABRES’ documentary realised by the LifeWatch Italy Multimedia Production Centre (the two video trailers focused on Macaronesia and Tuscan archipelago will be soon available online – the trailer focused on the Arctic Northeast Atlantic Demonstration Area is available on LifeWatching YouTube Channel and on the Marine SABRES dedicated web platform).

During the event, LifeWatch ERIC also engaged with some teachers and students to promote its Serious Game School Competition.
The first school competition will be launched on World Fisheries Day, Thursday 21st November 2024. Marine SABRES online serious game will introduce students between 10 and 18 years old to basic concepts of marine biology and coastal ecology and increase their awareness of the strong relations between us and the ocean. Moreover, they will have the unique opportunity to meet teachers and students from across Europe and learn from peers and a European network of researchers.
Download this presentation for more information about Marine SABRES and this international educational activity at the following link! More information here.

Have a look at our photogallery, enjoy all the moments of this incredible night!

For more information, please visit the official European Researchers’ Night ERN Apulia Med 2024

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

Watch our documentary trailers on LifeWatching WebTV platform: www.lifewatching.tv/tv-show/marine-sabres/

Autumn highlights from LifeWatch Belgium: celebrations, discoveries and new frontiers

autumn highlights

In this update, you can see a snapshot of the most exciting news from LifeWatch Belgium this season. From anniversaries to new scientific milestones, here are the stories you don’t want to miss:

  • 20 years of EurOBIS: the European Ocean Biodiversity Information System (Eurobis), a LifeWatch Belgium service, celebrated its 20th anniversary in grand style, releasing a “super-harvest” of marine biodiversity data. The system counts over 100 datasets, of which 87 new ones, for a total increase of more than 1 million marine species occurrence records that were made available. This follows its 15th-anniversary milestone, and since then, EurOBIS has nearly doubled its collection.
  • The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), hosted within LifeWatch Belgium by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), marked its 15th anniversary only two years ago. This autumn, it celebrates the milestone with the release of an opinion paper titled The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) through the looking glass: insights from the Data Management Team in light of the crystal anniversary of WoRMS. The paper reflects on WoRMS’ role in global biodiversity data management and highlights the importance of sustained collaboration for improving species data accessibility. It also offers updates on marine species discovery rates, insights into the editorial board’s daily activities, and progress on content priorities laid out by the WoRMS Steering Committee as part of the UN Ocean Decade.
  • The Ocean Census programme sets an impressive target of 100,000 new species: with the aim of revolutionising marine biodiversity research, the initiative will feed the WoRMS database contributing to marine conservation efforts. Marine biologists estimate that there are potentially between one and two million marine species that inhabit our oceans, but only around 246,500 have been described to date. Although discovering these new species will be challenging—particularly in the more inhospitable areas of the ocean—scientists believe these regions hold the greatest potential for new discoveries.

LifeWatch Belgium is one of the national nodes in LifeWatch ERIC, and it plays a critical role in developing and operating various essential infrastructure components, including i) a species information backbone as a central European resource, ii) a regional observatory for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, and iii) a facility for habitat mapping using remote sensing.

These achievements are important examples of LifeWatch Belgium’s support to advancing biodiversity science and better understanding and preserving biodiversity.

For more detailed stories, visit LifeWatch Belgium’s news page.

LifeWatch ERIC & friends transform knowledge into practice at the Science Summit 2024

Science Summit 2024

In the scope of its ongoing commitment to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, LifeWatch ERIC co-organises a workshop as part of the Science Summit 2024 at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) activities in New York (USA), within a network of European organisations (you can find the full list of the event sponsors and partners at the bottom of this page: https://sciencesummitunga.com/science-summit-unga79/).

The Science Summit 2024 is the global event dedicated to scientific and technological challenges of our time, such as climate action, One Health, biodiversity, food systems, AI and other topics relevant to the UN SDGs.

Every year since 2013, the event serves as a dynamic platform for thought leaders, scientists, policymakers and innovators around the world to showcase cutting-edge research and promote knowledge and collaboration. 

Through discussions and networking opportunities, it facilitates the exchange of ideas and the development of actionable strategies.

This year marks the 10th edition of the event and it is particularly important, as it coincides with the UN Summit of the Future. It will place a special emphasis on the Africa Science Leadership Coalition, which was launched at the UN Civil Society Conference on May 9, 2024, to promote African leadership in science policy decision-making. The event takes place in hybrid form, with a Virtual Programme running from 10th to 27th and a physical programme running from 17th to 27th in New York which is also streamed live.

This is not the first workshop organised by the European partners in the Summit. Again this year, these organisations are representing active communities – including LifeWatch ERIC – from the fields of biodiversity, ecology and engineering domains, aiming to strengthen science, technology and innovation efforts. With combined expertise, these communities selected Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a testbed to strategically contribute to the implementation of the SDGs. The focus is on the emerging properties presented as a network, rather than as individual organisations, projects or initiatives.

The workshop is called Transforming Knowledge into Practice: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs and will take place on Thursday, September 26, 2024, from 9:00am to 4:00pm EDT (3:00pm to 10:00pm CEST).

Online joiners can register for free and have the possibility to follow the livestream of the event, which will take place on the Rooftop of the Science Summit venue.

The agenda consists of two parts: one in the morning, on the collective contribution to the implementation of the UN SDGs, and one in the afternoon presenting expectations from the participating science and technology organisations on the above topic.

The workshop ends with the presentation of an open call to forge an international alliance, to further integrate biodiversity conservation into the priorities of the UN Summit of the Future agenda priorities, and the post-SDG agenda.

Christos Arvanitidis, LifeWatch ERIC’s CEO, will open the workshop in a welcome session presenting the objectives, and presenting LifeWatch ERIC as a practical example of the European collaborative effort on biodiversity. 
Follow this link to get the detailed agenda and register to the workshop: https://sciencesummit2024.sched.com/event/1jzig

Marine SABRES at EU Researchers’ Night 2024: conversations on biodiversity, sustainable blue economy and ecotourism.

On September 27, 2024, LifeWatch ERIC will participate in the European Researchers’ Night, contributing to its programme and engaging with participants, thanks to its research stand.

On this occasion, LifeWatch ERIC will present in particular the project Marine SABRES (www.marinesabres.eu), organising the initiative “Marine SABRES in fairs: biodiversity conservation and restoration, sustainable blue economy and the benefits of 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.

During the event, LifeWatch ERIC will present results and activities carried out in the framework of the project, with a special focus on this simple socio-ecological system framework designed and developed with the active support and participation of local stakeholders in three European marine regions, where researchers are developing and testing ways to balance varying combinations of conservation priorities and economic activities. The booth will promote best practices and examples, fostered by the project’s approach, of sustainable use of marine resources and tourism, raising awareness on the importance of governance solutions to address the impacts of future economic and climate scenarios.

Some videos realised by the LifeWatch Italy Multimedia Production Centre relating to project activities will be shown, and the research aims and results will be described with the help of posters and brochures. The videos will be also available to be broadcasted in a multimedia room.

For more information, please visit the official European Researchers’ Night ERN Apulia Med 2024

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

Watch our documentary trailers on LifeWatching WebTV platform: www.lifewatching.tv/tv-show/marine-sabres/

LifeWatch ERIC featured in the autumn issue of The Niche

The Niche, the quarterly magazine of the British Ecological Society (BES), released its autumn issue last Monday, 9th of September 2024.

The magazine is fully dedicated to science, ecology, and the life of ecologists, through a set of interviews, articles and much more.

This autumn, LifeWatch ERIC has been included in the section Your Society, dedicated to community events, special Interest Groups, relevant networks to be aware about, and member stories. 

Together with the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), and with the Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT), we are thrilled to be listed as “Friends of the society”, LifeWatch ERIC being the open science European infrastructure on biodiversity and ecosystems.

The British Ecological Society is, in fact, the oldest ecological society in the world, established in 1913 and counting over 7,000 members. Our organisation has been selected for the support it offers to the long-term sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity, by enabling research communities to use advanced facilities, services and resources.

Research infrastructures are crucial for national, European and international strategies to accelerate scientific advancements. As reported in the article, “Research Infrastructures represent everyday working hubs, assisting the most advanced groups of the scientific community develop new knowledge and innovation”.

LifeWatch ERIC, established in 2017, is one of these infrastructures, with a specific focus on Biodiversity and Ecosystem, integrating and federating FAIR complaint data, reproducible analytical services and mobilised research communities. 

“All the resources are accessible by users from every European country and beyond, without any borders, promoting Science Diplomacy and International equality, with an active policy that supports the access of early career researchers with new ideas and approaches, in line with the LifeWatch ERIC gender equality plan” – they wrote.

The article also lists the main benefits for scientists, such as data storage, metadata catalogues, VREs, digital training, conferences, and the many other opportunities available on our website. 

This year, LifeWatch ERIC will attend BES’s flagship event: the BES2024 Annual Meeting in Liverpool, with a conference booth and contributions from researchers. LifeWatch ERIC was also present in 2023, where, together with the University of Salento and the Italian National Research Council, they presented their work on biodiversity loss, climate change and invasive alien species. 

We invite you to take part in this year’s edition, as it might be a good chance to understand how we can support you and get a closer look at our services, meet new colleagues and learn skills and best practices.
The full issue of the autumn release of The Niche is available upon member registration on the BES website, at the following link: https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/membership-community/the-niche/

Marine Biodiversity and the One Health Framework Workshop in Crete

The Marine Biodiversity and One Health Framework workshop, co-organised by LifeWatch Greece (GR) and the European Marine Biological Resource Centre Greece (EMBRC GR), took place on August 29th and 30th at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Crete. The event brought together experts to discuss the intricate connections between marine biodiversity (and the entire interconnected ecosystem), and human health. Although alterations in the ecosystems often become perceptible only when it’s very late to intervene, these changes are occurring at high rates, with devastating impacts on society and health.

This has traditionally driven the approach of the One Health framework, and the workshop analysed recent advances in relation to the areas of interest of the framework, which include -omics, biodiversity and ecosystem research.

The event featured a range of sessions over two days. Key topics included the importance of research infrastructures in advancing the One Health framework, recent advancements in biodiversity and ecosystem research, and the role of aquatic microbial communities. Day one began with a series of presentations on biodiversity and ecosystem eScience, tackling topics such as data management/integration and FAIR principles, the soil microbiome, and the joint approach to medical and environmental eScience.

LifeWatch ERIC took part in the workshop showcasing its efforts in advancing biodiversity and ecosystem research from a European to a global scale. Christos Arvanitidis (CEO), and Alberto Basset (Interim Director), highlighted the organisation’s work on enhancing biodiversity and ecosystems eScience, providing an overview of how LifeWatch ERIC is leveraging cutting-edge technologies and infrastructures to support the One Health approach.

Moreover, LifeWatch ERIC’s involvement highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts in bridging regional, national, and international research initiatives to address the pressing issues of ecosystem health.

Day two of the workshop focused on marine biodiversity in relation to the One Health concept, exploring how microbial biodiversity can mitigate environmental stressors and prevent biodiversity loss, exploring the interconnectedness of microbiomes in extreme marine ecosystems and the potential of microbial interactions and networks. 

The conclusion of the event was dedicated to data resources, infrastructures, and omics approaches, providing insights into knowledge discovery from global metagenomic data and the importance of Essential Biodiversity and Ocean Variables.

The workshop, chaired by Georgios Kotoulas, Tsigenopulos Constantinos, Nikos Kyrpides, Christina Pavloudi and Haris Zafeiropoulos, was a great opportunity for fruitful discussions on addressing the challenges of ecosystem and human health in a rapidly changing world.
For more details on the event, visit the event page on LifeWatch Greece: https://www.lifewatchgreece.eu/?q=content/marine-biodiversity-and-one-health-framework-workshop-hcmr-crete-29-30-august

Contributing to wetland restoration goals: highlights from the SERE 2024 Conference in Estonia.

LifeWatch ERIC at SERE 2024 with RESTORE4Cs: joint conference on wetland restoration.

On 27th August 2024, LifeWatch ERIC has taken part to the 14th European Conference on Ecological Restoration (SERE 2024) in Tartu, Estonia, as communication and dissemination leader in the RESTORE4Cs European Project, dedicated to coastal wetland restoration. The participation involved the organisation of a booth and a joint session on wetland restoration with three related projects.

Wetland restoration is a key challenge in climate change mitigation strategies. Wetlands are crucial for greenhouse gas and carbon regulation and biodiversity support, making our planet more resilient against extreme weather events. However, 35% of wetlands in Europe have already been lost since 1970. 

As RESTORE4Cs is committed to supporting the implementation of Climate and Biodiversity policies within the European Green Deal, this event is especially important for the initiative, and for LifeWatch ERIC, due to its focus on the EU Nature Restoration law, which was approved earlier this year. The law cites specific goals for restoring peatlands, a specific type of wetland, due to the large contribution of degraded peatlands towards Europe’s carbon emissions.

RESTORE4Cs supports these objectives by gathering data on restoration and land use management actions, upscaling models and integrative assessment tools, structuring a European Community of Practice (ECoP), and co-designing a multi-actor approach.

LifeWatch ERIC has taken part in the conference, represented with a booth overseen by Madeira Scauri (EU Project Communication Officer), and a joint session with the other three wetlands projects ALFAwetlands, REWET and WET HORIZONS, marking the first time the project coordinators have met in person.

Liisa Ukonmaanaho from the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), who coordinates the ALFAwetlands project, expressed that meeting fellow project coordinators in person after numerous virtual meetings was particularly rewarding. She also highlighted the participants’ strong interest in wetland restoration, biodiversity and climate change.

Vanessa Ferreira de Almeida from IDENER, the coordinator of the REWET project, noted that their participation in SERE 2024 highlights the critical role of collaboration in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss through nature-based solutions.

The four projects focus on different aspects of wetland restoration across Europe, studying various wetland types to provide both general and region-specific data. Their shared goals include addressing knowledge gaps and developing decision support tools for policymakers.

The projects’ research and findings were presented in a dedicated session on wetland restoration at the SERE 2024 conference. Co-chaired by the project coordinators, the session was split into two parts. The first part, led by ALFAwetlands and WET HORIZONS, focused on improving geospatial knowledge and understanding the impacts of wetland restoration on biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and socioeconomics. The second part, led by REWET and RESTORE4Cs, explored optimising wetland management for carbon sequestration and the effects of restoration on coastal wetlands’ ecosystem services.

One key takeaway from the conference, concerns the importance of collaboration among scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders to develop sustainable solutions for wetland restoration and climate action.

Read the news and Press Release on the RESTORE4Cs website to learn more: https://www.restore4cs.eu/wetland-experts-come-together-at-the-sere-conference-in-estonia/

The LifeWatch ERIC training platform will continue to provide public access to the BiCIKL project training materials

BiCIKL project

After three years of advancing a cultural shift in identifying, linking, integrating, and re-using biodiversity data throughout the research cycle, the BiCIKL project is coming to a close. 

One of the key outputs of the BiCIKL project is the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH). Developed as a one-stop portal for understanding the interconnected landscape of European biodiversity research infrastructures, it acts as a knowledge broker for users who want to navigate and access open and FAIR biodiversity data, guidelines, tools, and services. 

Additionally, the BiCIKL project’s partners created training materials and detailed instructions to help users make the most of the linked services and access biodiversity data found in published literature. The training resources are divided into three courses to cater to users with different backgrounds and expertise, enabling them to begin with the fundamentals or concentrate on specific modules as required:

  • The Introduction to BKH course presents the BKH portal and helps users understand the functions offered by BKH and its associated data services.
  • The BKH Services course provides an overview of the services available in the BKH, and explains how to use each of them, with each service having its dedicated module, and offering best practices and recommendations for their use.
  • The Data Liberation and Publishing Tools Course is an advanced training course focusing on a more in-depth version of the multiple services featured on the BKH. This detailed module focuses on data liberation and publishing tools.

The courses, fully open and accessible to everyone, offer training materials that benefit various stakeholders. Research institutions can learn how different research infrastructures connect their data and add value for new user communities. Biodiversity researchers can explore new data sources, reduce errors in taxonomic name usage, and conduct complex queries. Taxonomists can compare name usage across checklists, access newly published information on a taxon, and create custom taxonomies. Biodiversity informaticians can discover data links, access guidance on identifiers and APIs, and compile complex datasets. Managers of biological collections can understand how their data is utilized and access linked data such as taxon names and sequences. Additionally, publishers can obtain guidelines, best practices, and tools for semantic publishing and implement persistent identifiers and workflows for Linked Open Data.

LifeWatch ERIC, via its Training Platform, will continue to host publicly accessible training materials even after the project’s conclusion, thus ensuring their long term sustainability. To learn more, please visit our Training Platform: https://training.lifewatch.eu/international-projects/resources/?category=32

RESTORE4Cs at the 14th European Conference on Ecological Restoration 

SERE 2024

RESTORE4Cs –  the EU-funded project on coastal wetland restoration in which LifeWatch ERIC is leading communications and dissemination – will participate in the 14th European Conference on Ecological Restoration (SERE 2024) from 26 to 30 August 2024, in Tartu, Estonia. Representatives from the project’s coordinator, the University of Aveiro, will be present as speakers as the scientific focal point of the project. LifeWatch ERIC will also be present with a booth to showcase the project to the participants.

About SERE 2024

SERE 2024 is a biennial international conference organised by the European Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) in Europe. Scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers of ecological restoration will gather in Tartu to share knowledge and discuss the future of European nature. RESTORE4Cs will hold a session on Wetland Restoration alongside its Sister Projects, ALFAwetlands, REWET and WET HORIZONS.

SERE 2024 will bring together stakeholders from across Europe to collaborate on effective approaches for the long-term recovery of nature. This event will serve as a platform for sharing ideas, knowledge, and experiences restoring various ecosystems, including wetlands, grasslands, forests, rivers, agroecosystems, urban areas, and marine ecosystems. The sessions will cover the theory and practical applications of ecological restoration and the socioeconomic and political contexts. There will be a specific focus on discussions related to developing national restoration plans in line with the new EU law.

To learn more about RESTORE4Cs’ participation at SERE 2024, please visit this page: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-at-sere-2024/.

About RESTORE4Cs and The Sister Projects

The restoration of wetlands is crucial for climate change mitigation. The Four EU-funded projects (RESTORE4Cs, ALFAwetlands, REWET and WET HORIZONS) are working together to restore wetlands and enhance their long-term mitigation capabilities. They will outline their initiatives in a special session and presentations from open abstract submissions. Their session will also include an interactive segment to create a roadmap for expediting restoration opportunities and maximising impact.

RESTORE4Cs is committed to supporting the implementing of Climate and Biodiversity policies within the European Green Deal through various initiatives. These include gathering data on restoration and land use management actions, upscaling models and integrative assessment tools, structuring a European Community of Practice (ECoP), and co-designing a multi-actor approach.

Navigating the Blue Economy: key takeaways on ocean monitoring ahead of the G20

On July 8, the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) hosted a webinar as part of the G20 Ocean Dialogues titled “Navigating the Blue Economy: Insights from Ocean Observation Data.” This virtual event, moderated by EMBRC’s Executive Director Nicolas Pade, brought together a diverse panel of experts to explore the crucial role of ocean observation in advancing marine conservation and sustainable economic practices.

Dr Kilaparti Ramakrishna – Director of Marine Policy Center and Senior Advisor to the President on Ocean and Climate Policy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution – set the stage by underscoring the ocean’s increasing significance globally, shifting the focus from economic and financial agendas. He highlighted initiatives supported by the United States National Science Foundation, advocating for a science-informed approach among G20 nations to promote ocean sustainability and resilience. Ramakrishna stressed the need for G20 countries to adopt science-driven approaches to ensure ocean sustainability and resilience, urging collaboration among scientific communities and civil society to shape inclusive development policies.

The webinar featured contributions from various stakeholders, offering different perspectives on leveraging ocean observation data for biodiversity conservation and sustainable economic development. During one of her interventions, Claire Jolly, Head of Ocean Economy at OECD, emphasised the need of comprehensively tracking ocean health, focusing on living organisms, while advocating for enhanced coordination and long-term political commitment to achieve common goals. Pooja Mahapatra, Principal Advisor, Climate & Nature at Fugro, highlighted the transformative role of public-private partnerships, citing their initiative to map Italy’s coastline using cutting-edge technologies. Regarding ocean observation, Ralph Rayner, Professional Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, advocated for a nuanced understanding rather than mere data accumulation, underscoring gaps in crucial data like marine carbon dioxide removal. Zoi Konstantinou, Policy Officer at the European Commission, addressed the challenge of fostering inclusive dialogue among diverse stakeholders in ocean observation and data management, underlining the importance of initiatives that promote transparency and collaboration. Fabrice Not, Senior Researcher at the Station Biologique de Roscoff, discussed advancements and challenges in biodiversity observation, emphasising the complexity of monitoring microscopic diversity and advocating for comprehensive ecosystem health assessments using advanced technologies.

About the Ocean Dialogues

Part of the Brazilian G20 Presidency’s OCEANS20 initiative, they play a key role in harnessing the ocean’s potential to address global challenges. They highlight the essential role of the ocean in ecosystem balance, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods and integrate scientific evidence with traditional knowledge for effective ocean management. These dialogues generate critical recommendations for financing ocean-climate initiatives and facilitating the transition to a blue economy. By convening experts and leaders, the dialogues advocate for policies that promote equitable food systems, accessible renewable energy, and multilateral cooperation on biodiversity and finance.

If you’re interested in viewing the entire webinar, the recording is available on YouTube on the EMBRC channel.