Biodiversity & ecosystem research survey

In a new initiative to engage the scientific community, LifeWatch ERIC has launched an online survey to better understand their needs and to elicit their views on the important topics that will shape biodiversity and ecosystem research in the next 10 years.  

Consisting of only six questions, the consultation seeks to gather researchers’ insights into the key topics, challenges and solutions that will need to be addressed in the decade 2021-2030. The results of the questionnaire will guide the infrastructure in further developing the services and tools deemed most essential to the scientific community.

LifeWatch ERIC already provides e-Science research facilities in pursuit of its mission of increasing knowledge and deepening understanding of biodiversity organisation and ecosystem functions and services in order to support civil society in addressing key planetary challenges. 

Have your say in this consultation by following this link. It only takes five minutes, none of the questions are mandatory and you can save the questionnaire and come back to it later. At the end of the questions, you will be taken to a collaborative space where you will be able to drop us your ideas after you completed the survey. 

LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue

The release of the new LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue was announced on Friday, 20 November 2020, heralding an enormous step forward in the infrastructure’s capacity to offer researchers the innovative tools and services required to tackle the scientific challenges of today and into the future. 

LifeWatch ERIC resources and services, Virtual Research Environments, originally released by different member states, have now been united into a single catalogue equipped with descriptive metadata that allow users to retrieve and manage information in much greater quantities and at greater speed. It now consists of one unified VRE, workflows, datasets, services, and a research site.

The LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue is informed by extensive ontologies and thesauri that make the records findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, according to the FAIR principles of data management. The architecture is based on GeoNetwork 3.10 and allows users to manage metadata related to five kinds of resources:

  • Datasets, by using the EML 2.2.0 standard (60 metadata attributes)
  • Research Site, by using a customised ISO19139 standard (36 metadata attributes)
  • Services, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (40 metadata attributes)
  • Virtual Research Environments, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (25 metadata attributes), and
  • Workflows, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (25 metadata attributes).

Not only can metadata attributes be optional/mandatory and require single/multiple values, the LifeWatch ERIC metadata catalogue also enables, upon validation and verification, the creation of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for resources that do not already have one, by exploiting the GeoNetwork – DataCite connection. 

This combination of features will allow scientists and researchers, wherever they are in the world, to access data from multiple records and elaborate future models of biodiversity and ecosystem services and functioning under complex vectors of climate change, in a way that has never been possible before. 

As nations around the globe realise the need to change humanity’s relationship with Nature, it is timely that the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue provides the computing power and access to historical records to facilitate the examination of scenarios of change across vast spatial and temporal scales. Access the catalogue here.

TiBE2020 Metabarcoding and Metagenomics

Trends in Biodiversity and Evolution

9-11 December 2020, online. The tenth edition of the Trends in Biodiversity and Evolution (TiBE) conference will be virtual this year and focus on Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. The meeting, held over three afternoons, will discuss exciting developments associated with the advent of ever more powerful DNA sequencing technologies, which are opening possibilities to explore the living world in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago.

This annual Trends inn Biodiversity and Evolution event is organised by CIBIO-InBIO, the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, connected through PORBIOTA with LifeWatch Portugal. It brings together senior researchers, post-graduate and graduate students working in the fields of biodiversity and evolutionary biology, to discuss cutting-edge findings in topics related to metabarcoding and metagenomic techniques, and their application in ecological and environmental research. The TiBE2020 conference is jointly organised by the CompBio and ApplEcol research groups. It will be hosted on an online platform that will facilitate networking opportunities and allow poster presentations. The programme, including both plenary and short presentations from selected abstracts, is divided into three sessions:

• Molecular surveys of biodiversity and invasive species

• Next generation biomonitoring of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

• Understanding species in interactions in complex ecosystems.

Abstracts are invited either as 15-minute oral presentations, or as 2-minute poster videos. Please note that only registered participants will be accepted as presenting authors. Abstract submission deadline is 27 October, 2020. Click here to download the abstract submission template. 

WCMB 2020 Virtual Conference

WCMB 2020

The World Conference on Marine Biodiversity 2020, Sunday 13-Wednesday 16 December 2020, will be fully virtual because of uncertainties in participants’ ability to travel to Auckland. To accommodate an expected increase in participants, the deadline for submission of abstracts for e-posters has been extended to 1 October.

The conference programme will be designed to accommodate varying timezones. It will enable all participants to view all talks and posters, even those in parallel sessions, at a time of their choosing. All materials, abstracts, programme, posters, talks, keynote presentations, and ‘breakout rooms’ for live discussion between participants, will be organised through one website. Side events to encourage live interactions between participants will be organised.

Conference fees for WCMB 2020 have been greatly reduced, earlybird prices apply up to 1 November, and sponsorship has been obtained to cover over 100 participants from Developing Countries. Virtual registration includes:

• Access to the virtual platform and all sessions during the conference 

• Access to recorded session content for up to three weeks after the conference has ended

• Access to view e-posters and chat with e-poster presenters

• Access to the Meeting Hub to connect with other virtual attendees. 

WCMB 2020 welcomes presentations on all aspects of marine biodiversity, both fundamental and applied sciences. The year 2020 is significant in being a deadline for both Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets and UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 14 on the oceans, and is a starting point for 2030 goals and the UN Decade of the Oceans. Thus, contributors are asked to link their talks and posters to these events where possible. The focus will be to prioritise contributions that are of general appeal and wide interest and, to minimise the number of parallel sessions and maximise inclusivity, participants can expect to be restricted to one presentation per speaker.

AERAP virtual conference “A New Era for Africa-EU Science and Innovation Partnerships”

The Africa European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP) held a virtual conference on 9-10 September 2020, entitled “A New Era for Africa-EU Science and Innovation Partnerships”. Scientists, innovators, network policymakers and other stakeholders came together to advance the cause of Africa Horizon Europe Development and Cooperation. Since its foundation in 2012, the AERAP platform has widened its scope beyond radio astronomy sciences to serve as an engagement platform for broader Africa-EU science collaboration, one of its main results being ontgoing EU-AFRICA cooperation and the establishment of the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) Research Infrastructure https://www.skatelescope.org/.

LifeWatch ERIC was represented by its Chief Technology Officer, Juan Miguel González-Aranda, who made two presentations to help reinforce the infrastructure’s collaboration with African communities of practice on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research. The presentations emphasised not only the nature and potential of LifeWatch ERIC, but also the active roles of the co-chairs of the EU-AFRICA AERAP Working Group on Green Deal, Transition & Energy Access: González-Aranda on behalf of the European Union side, by representing the ENVRI cluster on Research Infrastructures as also Member of the ERIC FORUM Executive Board; and Georgina Ryan, Department of  Science and Innovation, Pretoria, representing the Government of the Republic of South Africa on behalf of the African Union.

SItE Roundtable event

SItE Roundtable

When the annual Congress of the Italian Society of Ecology (Società Italiana di Ecologia – SItE), planned for 14-18 September in Lecce had to be postponed until next year because of Covid-19, the organising committee, in conjunction with LifeWatch Italy and the Ecology Laboratory at the University of Salento, decided to offer its members a day of online Roundtables entitled “SItE – Towards Lecce 2021” to celebrate Ecology Day on 14 September. Around 300 registrations were made to follow the 20 presentations offered across a comprehensive range of topics:

• Ecosystem health and chemical mixture risk assessment and management

• Ecosystems and their services for human well-being 

• Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People

• Landscape ecology: sustainable landscape management, and

• Arctic and Alpine ecosystems in the face of climate change.

Dr Christos Arvanitidis was called up from LifeWatch ERIC to contribute to the Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People session, which was organised by the European Ecological Federation and chaired by its President, Cristina Maguas. Dr Arvanitidis’ talk was on the topic of ‘Biodiversity and Emerging Infectious Diseases: the role of the RIs in combating threats to public health’, starting with the connection between environmental factors during the Plague of Athens (430 BC) and moving forward on to how modern European Research Infrastructures (RIs) contribute to analysing the connections between human and ecosystem health. An RI like LifeWatch ERIC offers a one-stop disruptive technology-based architecture combined with docker technology, that guarantees authentication, transparency and reproducibility, which form the cornerstones of the modern process of scientific knowledge production. In addition, Dr Arvanitidis argued, it enables “the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation”. Click here to download the presentation. The 2021 Italian Society of Ecology congress will take place in Lecce, from 13 to 17 September.

Master in e-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences

A new Master in e-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences (EBES) degree will be offered next year by the University of Salento and LifeWatch ERIC, to prepare the next generation of professionals to apply data tools and concepts to ecology, and develop innovative, interdisciplinary solutions to environmental issues. 

LifeWatch ERIC, together with the University of Salento (and soon also the Ionian University in Corfu), is offering students who enrol in this master’s degree the opportunity to combine these disciplines in a single professional development programme in this exciting new field. e-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences (EBES) is the newest International M.Sc. available at UniSalento, as from next academic year 2020-2021, as a double degree and exclusively taught in English.

A new generation of scientists and experts is needed in e-biodiversity and ecosystem sciences, professionals who are trained to apply data science tools and concepts to ecology, and develop innovative solutions to these key issues, and others, by blending the sciences and working in interdisciplinary teams.

Global challenges, like the climate crisis and the current COVID-19 pandemic, call for a deeper understanding of ecological phenomena at various levels of scale, to identify patterns and underlying mechanisms of biodiversity organisation and ecosystem functioning, and design scenarios of future change. 

Science is changing: informatics and data are becoming ever more prominent and are opening up new opportunities to advance our knowledge and provide science-based solutions to society’s needs. We have big data but we lack the ability to take full advantage of them. 

Thanks to the strategic partnership with LifeWatch ERIC, students of the Master in e-Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sciences will have the unique opportunity to spend from 6- to 12-month mobility periods abroad during their second year, taking advantage of dedicated LifeWatch ERIC fellowships or those of the ERASMUS+ programme. EBES students will also be welcomed within the LifeWatch ERIC Partner Institution Network, offering access to infrastructure facilities and Virtual Research Environments to work on their master’s thesis.

Check the brochure (updated 2021–2022 version) and the University of Salento webpage for more info.

Towards the ENVRI Community Winter School

Data FAIRness Webinar Programme, July–September 2020

For two years in a row already, the ENVRI Community International Summer School on Data FAIRness has been assembling in Lecce, in the middle of the summer season, those researchers, experts and technical staff from different environmental and research infrastructures who want to deepen their knowledge on this topic. Unfortunately, the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions have ordained the postponement of the current edition until the beginning of next year, when the ‘ENVRI Community Winter School on Data FAIRness‘ will take place, still in Lecce. The delay has created the opportunity to enrich our training offerings on the subject, with a series of online webinars dedicated to data management, leading the way ‘Towards the ENVRI community Winter School’.

A Data FAIRness Webinar Programme featuring three webinars have been jointly organised by ENVRI-FAIR and LifeWatch ERIC from July to September 2020, with a focus on helping end users, particularly ENVRI-FAIR project partners and data centre staff, make the best use of their data. Registration for the webinars is free and anyone working in environmental and Earth science research is welcome to take part.

Under the heading of ‘Towards the ENVRI Community Winter School’, the online training series debuts on Monday 13 July 2020. The first broadcast is presented by Zhiming Zhao, from the University of Amsterdam, and will go to air from 9:30 to 12:00 CEST, providing ‘An introduction to Cloud Computing’. 

The second webinar on ‘Workflows Orchestration and Execution’ will follow on Tuesday 14 July, from 10:00-12:00, presented by Nicola Fiore and Lucia Vaira, both from LifeWatch ERIC. 

The third webcast is scheduled for 22 September and will feature Claudio D’Onofrio and Karolina Pantazatou, both from ICOS ERIC, with ‘An Introduction to Jupyter’.

Dates for the ENVRI Community Winter School on Data FAIRness, still to be hosted by the University of Salento in Lecce, will be available soon.

LifeWatch Species Information Backbone

LifeWatch Species Information Backbone

The LifeWatch Species Information Backbone (LW-SIBb) facilitates the standardisation of species data and the (virtual) integration of many distributed biodiversity data repositories and operating facilities. Built on expert-validated and literature-based information, the LW-SIBb is structured in different open data systems for taxonomy, biogeography, genetics and species traits. It is the driving force behind the species information services of the Belgian LifeWatch.be e-Lab. Several taxonomic data systems, species registers, nomenclatures and taxonomy-related projects contribute to the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone. They all help to make the Species Information Backbone more complete, either by an active collaboration to fill gaps, opening their data system for data exchange or by making their data accessible through web services. Recently, two major milestones were reached within the Backbone. 

Firstly, the data rescue and secured continuation of the Global Compositae Database into the Aphia platform has become a fact. Although Compositae (or Asteraceae) are not even remotely linked to the marine environment, the Aphia database – the platform behind the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) – is suitable for managing non-marine taxa as well. Rather than letting this enormous resource of Compositae information run the risk of disappearing, the WoRMS Data Management Team undertook to transfer it to the Aphia platform, starting work in 2017. That transfer has now been completed.

Secondly, the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) is a compilation of genus names that covers both living and extinct biota in a single system to support taxonomic and other queries dealing with e.g. homonyms, authorities, parent-child relationships, spelling variations and distinctions between marine and non-marine or fossil and recent taxa. IRMNG provides  the most complete and consistent coverage of all kingdoms of life presently available in such a form and serves to illustrate the scope of a project for a more detailed survey of “all the genera of the world” as well as providing a comparison with existing lists and preliminary content that can be of value for the compilation of new lists. 

Like the Compositae Database, IRMNG, which was originally started and managed by the CSIRO in Australia, has also experienced a major data rescue and become an integrated part of the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone, accessible through its very own portal, and through the LifeWatch e-services.

Data Protection Legislation Webinar

What are the main challenges awaiting Data Protection Legislation for health research? How is COVID-19 pandemic affecting this?

These are the themes at the heart of the International webinar hosted, today 5 May 2020, by Intelligence in Science (ISC), on health research in the era of General Data Protection Regulation, discussing how regulations might affect the coordination of global responses and how data transfers and processing can be achieved with safety and security.

Juan Miguel González-Aranda, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Board member of ERIC FORUM, was invited to join the panel on GDPR/Blockchain, Federated Machine Learning and AI. This is in fact a central niche for the distributed e-Infrastructure which, under the lead of its CTO and thanks to the effort of all ICT staff, developed the LifeBlock platform, establishing LifeWatch ERIC as the first Environmental ESFRI using Blockchain technologies for engaging, tracking and securing biodiversity and ecosystem research resources & services provision.

The webinar featured contributions from National Institutes of Health, government departments and eminent universities, while topics ranged from GDPR and Data Transfers, their implication for Horizon Europe funding opportunities, and downstream data sharing for COVID-19 research. The webinar concluded with a World View, working towards recommendations for global alignment on data protection regulation for improved health outcomes in advance of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020.