European Researchers’ Night

September is a busy month in the LifeWatch ERIC calendar, not only for the many scientific congresses, but also because of the increased outreach to the general public, students and families in particular, to interest them in the science behind biodiversity and ecosystem research. Within the framework of the European Researchers’ Night, on 27 September 2019, events were staged in member countries to highlight the impact of research on our daily lives.

As a record 7.6 million people took to the streets in Climate Strike protests around the world, universities, laboratories and museums across Europe were opening their doors to promote how scientific researchers contribute to society by displaying their work in interactive and engaging ways, with the ultimate aim of motivating young people to embark on research careers of their own. 

The LifeWatch Greece team participated in a European Researchers’ Night in the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion. Hundreds of people attended and had the opportunity to learn about marine research and aquatic biodiversity in different thematic pavilions and hands-on activities, including Virtual Reality, interactive games and demonstrations.

In Lecce, Italy, professors Alberto Basset (LifeWatch ERIC) and Giuseppe Corriero (LifeWatch Italy) joined “A Pint with Science”, an open event in a popular bar, talking about ‘Biodiversity Emergency, Objective Sustainability’ to a responsive crowd of followers on Thursday. 

The following day, LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre at the University of Salento opened its premises to young people and families, to play dedicated serious games on biodiversity and make enquiries about the infrastructure and its activities. Listening to videos of key scientists explaining how ecological science builds an understanding of the issues we face globally, visitors were guided to learn more about the key challenges ahead in the field of biodiversity and ecosystem research 

In the midst of popular calls to deal with current climate issues, these outreach events showcase the diversity of research, bring researchers closer to the public, mobilise citizens, and increase general awareness and understanding of how important research and innovation are in addressing societal challenges.

International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures”

Between 9 – 13 July, around 40 academics, researchers, PhD students, data managers and research infrastructure developers from all across Europe gathered in Lecce, to join the International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures: theory and practice”, organised by the H2020 ENVRIplus project and the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre.

In recent years, one of the major challenges in environmental and earth science has been managing and using continuously growing volumes of data collected across multiple disciplines, and educating both scientists and developers on how best to do so. Many different standards, approaches, and tools have now been developed to support the research data lifecycle, which need to be examined and, where appropriate, adopted by a wider community. In particular, modern semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among environmental and ecological resources and the researchers who use them.

To address these challenges, ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre organised a five-day summer school providing an unique insight into the contemporary debate on data management in the environmental and earth sciences. The programme, combining theory with hands-on sessions, explored themes as diverse as reference modelling and research metadata semantics, data processing and e-infrastructure, identification and citation, cataloguing and provenance, and closed presenting two use cases on data management in the context of LifeWatch Italy.

2018 International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures”

Between the 9 –13 July, around 40 academics, researchers, PhD students, data managers and research infrastructure developers coming from all across Europe gathered in Lecce, to join the International Summer School on “Data Management in Environmental and Earth Science Infrastructures: theory and practice”, organised by the H2020 ENVRIplus and LifeWatch Service Centre.

In recent years, one of the major challenges in environmental and earth science has been managing and using continuously growing volumes of data collected across multiple disciplines, and educating both scientists and developers on how best to do so. Many different standards, approaches, and tools have now been developed to support the research data lifecycle, which need to be examined and, where appropriate, adopted by a wider community. In particular, modern semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among environmental and ecological resources and the researchers who use them.

To address these challenges, ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch Service Centre organised a five-day summer school providing an unique insight into the contemporary debate on data management in the environmental and earth sciences. The programme, combining theory with hands-on sessions, explored themes as diverse as reference modelling and research metadata semantics, data processing and e-infrastructure, identification and citation, cataloguing and provenance, and closed presenting two use cases on data management in the context of LifeWatch Italy.

“Both ENVRIplus and the LifeWatch Service Centre have been working on these topics and have already organised dedicated workshops and training sessions in recent years.” say the organisers, Nicola Fiore (LifeWatch Service Centre) and Zhiming Zhao (ENVRIplus). “This year we decided to move forward and propose a full International Summer School; its participants were enthusiastic about the programme and so we are already at work on a 2019 edition”.

Ontology and Semantic Web for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research

Workshop | Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research Lecce (Italy) | 11–14 July 2017

Many different standards, approaches, and semantic tools have been developed to improve data sharing and interoperability. Semantic technologies provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate these different data sources in ways that reduce barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange among biodiversity and ecosystem resources and researchers.

LifeWatch Italy and EUDAT want to tackle these challenges through their workshop Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research, a forum for the semantic web and linked open data communities, where professionals from Academia, Research Infrastructures, Industries and others interested in these topics are welcome to present theoretical and applied research work, share experiences and discuss the latest scientific results and technology innovations around semantic technologies and linked open data in the field of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research.

In particular the event will revolve around four main themes:

  • Usages of semantic resources in Research Infrastructures (RIs)
  • Comparison among vocabulary governances
  • Alignment of vocabularies and ontologies
  • Services for semantics 
  • Semantic discoverability and interoperability

The workshop Ontology & Semantic Web for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research will take place in Lecce, in the fascinating historical framework of Monastero degli Olivetani (University of Salento) from 11–14 July 2017.

International Summer School

Geocomputation using free and Open Source Software, Matera (Italy), 19-23 June 2017

The International Summer School, organised by Spatial Ecology (www.spatial-ecology.net), will be held at the University of Basilicata, in the magnificent town Matera, Italy, from 19 – 23 June.

A 5-day intense experience opening new horizons on the use of the vast potentials of Linux environment and the command line approach for data processing using Bash, AWK, Python, GRASS, QGIS, GDAL/OGR, R, PKtools, OpenForis. Trainers will guide newbies and experienced GIS users who have never used a command line terminal to a stage which will allow them to understand and apply very advanced open source data processing routines. The focus is to enhance a self-learning approach, allowing participants to progress and improve their skills in a continuously evolving technological environment.

More information and registration:

www.spatial-ecology.net

www.spatial-ecology.net/upcoming-events   

www.facebook.com/spatialecology > see events

twitter: @BigDataEcology

Workshop on Thesauri and Semantics

On 9 – 10 June 2016, LifeWatch Italy will hold its workshop “Thesauri & Semantics in the Ecological Domain“. The workshop will be held in Lecce (Italy), in the BIOforIU Multidisciplinary Laboratory of the University of Salento (BIOforIU), with the support of CNR IREA. The two days will be organised as follows:

Thursday, 09/06/2016

sharing good management practices of semantics in the context of ecology

Friday, 10/06/2016

discussing collaboration opportunities in the development and integration of thesauri/vocabularies.

To ensure the best organisation and quality of the workshop, we are starting to collect registrations which will be opened until 13 May. You can attend the workshop either as presenter or participant. Please also note that due to the very concentrated schedule of the workshop we might not be able to accept all proposals.

Alessandro Oggioni oggioni.a(at)irea.cnr.it

Ilaria Rosati ilaria.rosati(at)unisalento.it

2 e-biodiversity PhD positions

The University of Salento has just opened a call to select two PhD positions on e-biodiversity (Tutor Prof. Basset). 

The call is directed to both Italian and English speaking candidates, and is available on Univeristy of Salento’s website (or downoload teh call here).

Please consider the attachement H and positions 3 and 4. 

The call will close on 3 August 2015.

For more information, please contact Prof. Basset.

Opening of BIOforIU

On Friday 15 May 2015, the reserach facilities built in the framework of the BIOforIU project were inaugurated in the University of Salento.
Many the links with the LifeWatch’s Service Centre, in particular concerning the e-Biodiversity Research Centre, one of the six facilities hosted in Lecce.
Have a look to our video and brochures and discover the many opportunities for scientific cooperation.

The LifeWatch Marine VRE

The LifeWatch Marine Virtual Research Environment (VRE) portal has just been launched, bringing together several marine resources, data bases, data systems, web services, tools, etc. into one marine virtual research environment (VRE). 
This portal can be considered as a first bottom-up development demonstrating potential and capability emulating the LifeWatch objectives. 

The Marine VRE allows researchers to retrieve and access data resources holding marine biodiversity and ecosystem data, a range of data systems on species names, traits, distribution and genes. 

A set of online tools is available to facilitate data analysis of marine biodiversity and ecosystem data, and analysis can be performed on data from known data resources and/or data uploaded by the users themselves. Should a researcher need a specifically adapted service, the Marine VRE gives the possibility to build his/her own marine virtual lab, making use of the web services that access and process data.

Service catalogues and ‘how to’ manuals will guide the users during the development of their own system. The Marine VRE is already looking to the future, working to further increase the integration and interaction between its components. 

Visit http://marine.lifewatch.eu/ and find out more about its features and services.