Irene Matteo

Irene Matteo

Irene is a dynamic professional with expertise in administrative support, event management, and operations. With a background in international relations and economics, she is driven by a passion for creating meaningful solutions. Currently, she is expanding her knowledge with a master’s in Sustainable Development.

Vanessa Marrocco

Vanessa Marrocco
EU Project Scientific Networking Officer, LifeWatch ERIC 
Graduated with honors in Environmental Sciences in 2017, Vanessa Marrocco holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Salento. She has a strong scientific background in animal movement, spatial planning, ecological responses to climate change, and invasive species. During her PhD and post-doc with LifeWatch, she had the opportunity to work with various researchers, focusing on their needs, which has evolved into her current role.
For the past two years, as EU Project Scientific Networking Officer, she has been primarily involved in European projects, fostering collaboration between scientists and institutions.

Laura Caciagli

Laura Caciagli
Science Communication Specialist, LifeWatch ERIC 
Graduated with honours in Biology (course of study: Ecology), with a PhD in Evolutionistic Biology at the University of Pisa, and a Master in Science Communication at SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), Trieste, Italy. She has over fourteen year of professional experience in the field of science communication and journalism, having worked for Italian magazines and research institutions of international and national relevance, such as the CMCC Foundation (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change) and the Institute for Informatics and Telematics (IIT) of the National Research Council (CNR).
She joined LifeWatch ERIC communication office in 2022, being in particular involved in the coordination of LifeWatching WebTV activities and in many European projects dealing with marine sciences, biodiversity and ecosystem research, coordinating communication tasks concerning the design and development of multimedia products
and the organisation of events.

Eleonora Romano

Eleonora Romano

Eleonora Serena Romano is Administrative Officer at the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre since July 2021. She holds a degree in International Relations and Economics from the University of Bologna and has over fifteen years of professional experience in administrative and financial management within the research and innovation ecosystem.
She has worked across both the private and public sectors, including a long-standing collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change Foundation (CMCC), where she initially supported the administrative activities of a research division before becoming Head of the Procurement Office.
Since joining LifeWatch ERIC, she has been responsible for the overall administrative management of the Service Centre, overseeing human resources, legal and financial operations, and the administrative coordination of European project management. She plays a key role in the implementation and continuous improvement of internal procedures, ensuring compliance with national and European regulations and contributing to the effective and sustainable growth of the Service Center.

Sara Montinaro

Sara Montinaro

Sara Montinaro is the Chief Communication Officer of LifeWatch ERIC. Graduated in Communication Studies in 2007, she has over fifteen-year professional experience in the field of communications, in particular digital one, at the European level, having worked for European Institutions, such as the Committee of the Regions and European Parliament, international organisations and research infrastructures. Since 2014, she has been coordinating LifeWatch Italy communication activities and since 2018 she has been in charge of coordinating LifeWatch ERIC communication office and dissemination activities. She has been involved in a number of European and national projects related to biodiversity and ecosystem research and the application of the scientific method, for what concerns the planning and implementation of dissemination and communication tasks targeting the younger generations  through gaming tools and activities, events and specifically tailored publications.

Alberto Basset

Alberto Basset

Alberto Basset is Director of LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre, Member of its Executive Board and full professor of ecology at the University of Salento (Italy). His main research interests are on biodiversity organization and maintenance, ecosystem functioning and services and their responses to natural and anthropic pressures, including climate changes. The research activities have produced more than 200 publications on international peer reviewed journals, being quoted in 2014 as one of the 20 top scientists for the scientific production on ecosystem ecology. He has been president of the Italian Ecological Society, of the Ecological European Federation and of LaguNet, being founding member and current president of the Euro-Mediterranean Federation of the Lagoon Research Networks (EUROMEDLAG). Alberto Basset is currently member of both General Assembly and Executive Board of the ‘eScience European Infrastructure on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (LifeWatch ERIC)’ and of the Advisory Committee of the European Research Infrastructure on ‘Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory (EMSO ERIC)’ and he is the University of Salento responsible in the National Node of the European Research Infrastructure on Long Term Ecological Research (eLTER RI). Alberto Basset is delegate of the Ministry of University and Research in the European Partnership ‘Biodiversa+’ and he has been a member of the Italian delegation to the recent G20 meeting on challenges and opportunities for research and innovation in the Amazon and Tropical Forests.

Cristina Mancarella

Cristina Mancarella

Cristina Mancarella joined LifeWatch ERIC in 2024 as Digital Communication Officer, supporting the Chief Communication Officer in representing the organisation across digital platforms, strategic communications, stakeholder relations, and public-facing initiatives.

She works closely with scientific communication specialists, project managers, scientific networking officers, and the communication representatives of both European projects and LifeWatch ERIC’s National Distributed Centres.

Cristina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Interpreting, Translation and Cultural Mediation, and a Master’s degree in Linguistics, which can be defined as the scientific study of language.

This discipline spans a wide range of fields, from the physics of speech sounds and the cognitive processes behind language, to grammar and meaning, computational linguistics, historical language evolution, and even studies of animal communication. It is a broad, interdisciplinary field that bridges elements of neuroscience, anthropology, computer science, philosophy and more, offering tools to understand how meaning is created, processed, and shared across cultures and systems.

This background shaped her more than 10 years of experience in communication roles across both commercial and EU research contexts, including several H2020 projects where she led communication and dissemination work packages.