How We Work

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LifeWatch ERIC is a distributed research infrastructure consortium composed of seven European Union Member States. The current members are Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain. All seven members operate from national nodes, known as Distributed Centres, while LifeWatch ERIC‘s Common Facilities are located in three Member States: Spain (Statutory Seat & ICT-Core), Italy (Service Centre) and the Netherlands (VLab & Innovations Centre).

Are you interested in joining LifeWatch ERIC? Take a look at our FAQ.

Common Facilities

Statutory Seat & ICT-Core

Service Centre

VLab & Innovations Centre

Distributed Centres

Governance

LifeWatch ERIC relies on a multi-level governance model to ensure effective decision-making, smooth management, scientific soundness and transparency of processes.

The infrastructure includes two main Statutory Bodies to carry out these functions: the General Assembly and the Executive Board.

These are supported by four Subsidiary Bodies:

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Board (STAB),
The In-Kind Contribution Committee (IKCC),
The Financial Committee (FINCOM),
The ad-hoc Evaluation Committee.

Statutory Bodies

The General Assembly is the highest governing body, in charge of the overall direction and supervision of infrastructure activities.

Inmaculada Figueroa

Chair

The Executive Board is responsible for day-to-day management, ensuring the consistency, coherence and stability of infrastructure services and coordination between the Common Facilities and Distributed Centres.

Christos Arvanitidis

CEO

Lucas de Moncuit

CFO

Alberto Basset

Italy

Peter H. van Tienderen

Netherlands

Policies and Internal Rules

Following the Recommendation of the General Assembly, a set of policies and internal rules have been developed to ensure the smooth functioning of LifeWatch ERIC.

All LifeWatch ERIC Policies and Internal Rules are listed below.

Please note that documents stored under the Public tab are freely accessible, while those stored under Restricted Access are reserved.

Christos Arvanitidis's Bio

Christos Arvanitidis is the LifeWatch ERIC CEO. He has a PhD in Marine Biology and is Research Director in the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, and former head of the Biodiversity laboratory.

He has been involved in over 70 research and education projects. With over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including 3 monographs, he’s serving as reviewer in over 50 international peer reviewed journals and he’s Associated, Handling, Guest Editor or Member of the Editorial Board in many of them.
He participates to international and national Expert Groups, Advisory and Executive Boards (UN World Ocean Assessment, GES Descriptor “Biodiversity” to EU, ICES Task Group 6, MARS, SMEBD, WoRMS, IPA, IMBE).
His research activity focuses on marine biodiversity, biodiversity informatics, functional diversity, and coastal ecosystems. He works on the comparisons of marine biodiversity information patterns deriving from various biological levels and scales of observation, trying to develop new approaches to explore their interrelationships

Lucas de Moncuit's Bio

Lucas de Moncuit is the LifeWatch ERIC Chief Financial Officer.

Lucas de Moncuit has a multi-disciplinary background including expertise in business administration, financial management, climate change and sustainable development. After a brief career in the banking sector, he began providing advice on strategic and business management issues to public and private sector companies and went on to work with NGOs and international organisations to promote the adoption of sustainability policies and practices by local and national governments. He also contributed to reports on low emission development strategies, climate finance and on the role of ICTs in the field of sustainability and climate change.

Alberto Basset's Bio

Alberto Basset is the interim Director of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre and Member of the LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly. He is full professor of Ecology at the University of Salento, his research interests being in biodiversity organisation and ecosystem functioning with a focus on aquatic ecosystems.

He is past President of the EEF and the EuroMedLag and is on the board of editors of various international journals. He is Manager of the Joint Research Unit LifeWatch-ITA, which represents the Italian LifeWatch Support Committee, and has coordinated and participated in several EU projects.

Peter H. van Tienderen's Bio

Peter H. van Tienderen is Interim Director of VLab & Innovation Centre, Member of the LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly and leader of LifeWatch Netherlands.

He is full professor at the University of Amsterdam and Dean of the Faculty of Science. His scientific interest concerns the evolution of biodiversity, and has published on a range of topics in this field. Applied aspects concern the potential consequences of the introduction of GM crops. His involvement in RI development is exemplified by two recent LERU papers (Challenges for Biodiversity research in Europe & Four Golden Principles for Enhancing the Quality, Access and Impact of RIs).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.