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Find out more about the team behind LifeWatch ERIC.

LifeWatch ERIC employs an international staff with wide-ranging expertise and multidisciplinary skills. Staff members, roles and contact details are displayed below.

Are you interested in joining the team? Click here to browse our job opportunities.

Christos Arvanitidis

Chief Executive Officer

ceo@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Lucas de Moncuit

Chief Financial Officer

cfo@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Alberto Basset

Interim Director of Service Centre

alberto.basset@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Peter H. van Tienderen

Interim Director of VLab & Innovation Centre

peter.vantienderen@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Giovanna Caputi Iambrenghi

General Assembly & Research Infrastructure Committee Support

giovanna.caputi@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Cristina Huertas-Olivares

Senior Scientific Officer & Executive Board Support

cristina.huertas@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Maite Irazábal Plá

Scientific Coordination Support

maite.irazabal@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Rocío Mantero Cejudo

Quality & Project Engineer

rocio.mantero@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

María Pérez Fernández

Global Project Manager

maria.perez@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Ana Bajandas

Project Manager

ana.bajandas@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Javier Sáenz Reina

Finance & Accounting Officer

javier.saenz@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Elena Delgado Rivera

People & Culture Manager

elena.delgado@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Hooi Sung Lim

Quality Assurance & Risk Management Officer

clarese.lim@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Javier López-Torres

Procurement & Institutional Relationship Officer

javier.lopez@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Antonio José Sáenz Albanés

e-Infrastructure Operations Coordinator

aj.saenz@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Francisco Manuel Sánchez Cano

e-Infrastructure Resource Integration Coordinator

franciscom.sanchez@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Joaquín López Lerida

Data e-Science Management Plan & BlockChain Officer

joaquin.lopez@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Adrián Guerrero Bermúdez

Hybrid Cloud Data Centre & Software Systems Operation Manager

adrian.guerrero@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Emilio Luis Jara Fontacaba

Distributed e-Infrastructure Control & Network Systems Manager

emilio.jara@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Julio Paneque

Principal Software Engineer

julio.paneque@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Pablo Santos Ortiz

Full Stack Developer

pablo.santos@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

José Antonio Zaíño Rodríguez

Full Stack Developer

josea.zaino@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

José Manuel Ávila-Castuera

Senior Scientific Manager

josem.avila@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Iria Soto Embodas

Senior Scientific Manager

iria.soto@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Ana Mellado García

Senior Scientific Manager

ana.mellado@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Xavier Rotllan-Puig

Data Management Specialist

xavier.rotllan@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Mariela Pino García

ICT Core Project Manager

mariela.pino@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Javier Saura Rascón

Project Manager

javier.saura@lifewatch.eu
Statutory Seat, Seville, Spain

Eleonora Romano

Administrative Officer

eleonora.romano@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Irene Matteo

Administrative Assistant

irene.matteo@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Cosimo Vallo

Training Officer

cosimo.vallo@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Eleonora Parisi

EU Project Training Officer

eleonora.parisi@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Sara Montinaro

Chief Communication Officer

sara.montinaro@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Laura Caciagli

Science Communication Specialist

laura.caciagli@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Cristina Mancarella

Digital Communication Officer

cristina.mancarella@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Madeira Scauri

EU Project Communication Officer

madeira.scauri@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Ant Türkmen

Scientific Community Networking Officer

ant.turkmen@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Vanessa Marrocco

EU Project Scientific Community Networking Officer

vanessa.marrocco@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Lucia Vaira

Service Centre ICT Coordinator

lucia.vaira@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Eftychia Tzafesta

EU Project Data Science Specialist

eftychia.tzafesta@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Majid Fiaz

Web Developer

majid.fiaz@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Parham Ramezani

ICT Ontology Junior Developer

parham.ramezani@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Pierluigi Calasso

Help Desk Technician

pierluigi.calasso@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Nikos Minadakis

Semantic Engineer

nikos.minadakis@lifewatch.eu
Service Centre, Lecce, Italy

Zhiming Zhao

VLIC Technical Manager

zhiming.zhao@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Gabriel Pelouze

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

gabriel.pelouze@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Spiros Koulouzis

Virtual Research Environment Developer

spiros.koulouzis@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Koen Greuell

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

koen.greuell@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Jacco Konijn

Project Manager

jacco.konijn@lifewatch.eu
VLIC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Policy Relevance and Uptake

End of May 2026 – Policy-brief to demonstrate the application of habitat-based mapping in supporting EU strategies (e.g., Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Law).

Mapping user requirements

End of January 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines addressing ecological responses to climate change;
February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.

Greece

The Greek National Distributed Centre is funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology and is coordinated by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, in conjunction with 47 associated partner institutions.

To know more about how Greece contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Italy

The Italian National Distributed Centre is led and managed by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and is coordinated by a Joint Research Unit, currently comprising 35 members. Moreover, Italy hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Service Centre.

To know more about how Italy contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Netherlands

The Dutch National Distributed Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. Moreover, The Netherlands hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Virtual Laboratory and Innovation Centre.

To know more about how The Netherlands contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Portugal

The Portuguese National Distributed Centre is managed by PORBIOTA, the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity. Led by BIOPOLIS/CIBIO-InBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, PORBIOTA connects the principal Portuguese research institutions working in biodiversity.

To know more about how Portugal contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Slovenia

The Slovenian National Distributed Centre is led by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). It focuses on the development of technological solutions in the field of biodiversity and socio-ecosystem research.

To know more about how Slovenia contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Spain

The Spanish National Distributed Centre is supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (Ministry for Ecological Transition-MITECO). Moreover, Spain is the hosting Member State of LifeWatch ERIC, the location of its Statutory Seat & ICT e-Infrastructure Technical Office (LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities).

To know more about how Spain contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian National Distributed Centre is represented by the Agricultural University-Plovdiv.

To know more about how Bulgaria contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Implementing services

End of January 2025 – Internal distribution of a questionnaire on the most used/relevant model resources in the WG member research activity;
February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders.

Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building

End of December 2025 – Create a shared repository of guidance documents, tools, templates, and data resources accessible to WG members and broader communities.

Organising WG workshops and conferences

End of January 2025 – Setting priority research lines and contributions to the BEeS 2025 LifeWatch Conference for the session on the “Ecological responses to climate change”;
March/April 2025 (TBD) – Workshop ‘Ecological modelling and eco-informatics to address functional responses of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate change’ co-organised with the University of Salento;
30 June – 3 July 2025 – Participation to LifeWatch 2025 BEeS Conference on “Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis”.

Fund raising

End of January 2025 – Establishing a WG Committee on scouting project application opportunities and fundraising.

Meetings, Webinars, International Conferences & Networking (2025/2026)

Organising and participating at discussions on emerging technologies in biodiversity monitoring;
Organising webinars on machine learning, eDNA analysis, and automated data collection;
Fostering collaboration between researchers, technologists, and decision-makers.

Collaborative Research & Case Studies (2025/2026)

Conducting pilot projects to test new monitoring methods;
Publishing scientific and popular science papers and reports on advancements in biodiversity assessment.

Data Standardisation & FAIR Principles Implementation (2025/2026)

Developing best practices for data curation and sharing;
Ensuring that biodiversity data aligns with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) standards.

Development of VREs for Ecosystem Simulation (2026)

Creating virtual models of ecosystems to predict environmental changes;
Enhancing conservation strategies through AI-driven simulations.

Mapping Requirements and Gap Analysis

End of December 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines Ecosystem services mapping.

Methodological Alignment and Innovation

End of January 2026 – Online working table on mapping standards, classification systems, and indicators across members;
End of January 2026 – Catalogue of advanced techniques (e.g., remote sensing, GIS modelling, and machine learning) for scalable, habitat-based ecosystem service mapping;
End December 2026 – Methodological framework to support methodological innovation through joint development and testing of mapping approaches, especially linking ecosystem service supply and demand.

Belgium

The Belgian National Distributed Centre makes varied and complementary in-kind contributions to LifeWatch ERIC. These are implemented in the form of long-lasting projects by various research centres and universities distributed throughout the country and supported by each respective political authority.

To know more about how Belgium contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.