LifeWatch ERIC is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium providing e-Science research facilities to scientists investigating biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in order to support society in addressing key planetary challenges.
LifeWatch ERIC was established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium by the European Commission in 2017.
Click here to read about Research Infrastructures and here to learn more about ERICs.
See all the other members of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC Landscape) here.
Vision
The vision behind LifeWatch ERIC is to become the Research Infrastructure providing access to the world’s biodiversity content, services and communities in one click.
Mission
LifeWatch ERIC aims to accelerate the research efforts of the scientific community by delivering a European state-of-the-art e-Science Research Infrastructure on biodiversity and ecosystem research: a Digital Twin which
- provides access to, and support for, key scientific services by applying cutting-edge ICT technology,
- enables reproducible analytics,
- is co-designed and co-created with the user communities and
- is tuned with the needs for research that provides key insights for society, in particular science-based policy.
Impacts & perspectives
As a provider of e-Science facilities for the European Research Area, LifeWatch ERIC represents a significant step forward, empowering users and stakeholders as they seek to address societal challenges linked to climate change and resource efficiency, food security and agriculture, sustainable development and energy supply, security and health.
LifeWatch ERIC is committed to:
- Reaching the computers of all scientists, ecosystem managers & decision makers, and involving citizens in science
- Providing VREs, vLabs & Big Data paradigm-based tools to conduct cutting-edge research
- Boosting technological innovation, continuously improving the performance of our VREs, opening up new fields for socio-economic development
- Establishing synergies with various national and regional stakeholders, particularly in respect to RIS3
- Promoting democracy and creativity in science.
Our Story
2006-2010
Preparatory phase
LifeWatch enters the 2006 ESFRI Roadmap
FP7 LifeWatch
2011-2017
Transition Phase
Signature of a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate for the start of LifeWatch
Organisation of the first Inter-ministerial meeting
Organisation of five Operational meetings
Inaugurations of the Statutory Seat (Seville, Spain) and Service Centre (Lecce, Italy)
2017
1st Implementation Period
Establishment of LifeWatch ERIC by the European Union
2018
1st Implementation Period
Management & governance gathering speed
Establishment of the three Common Facilities Offices
Recruitment of the first units of personnel
Launch of LifeWatch ERIC Website
Organisation of ERIC Forum in Seville
2019
1st Implementation Period
Three new EU funded Projects: ENVRI-FAIR, Resinfra EU-LAC, ERIC Forum
First Scientific Community Meeting
First National Support Networks Meeting
Portugal joins LifeWatch ERIC
Start of LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative (IJI)
Prototypes of LifeBlock & Tesseract
EcoPortal
Co-organisation of Biodiversity Next Conference
2020
1st Implementation Period
One new EU project funded: ALL-Ready
Implementation of LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative (IJI)
First release of LifeWatch ERIC Tesseract, LifeBlock and Metadata catalogue
Initiation of the preparations for the next five-year period
Expansion of dialogue and fostering of collaboration with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations and Networks, and Stakeholders
2021
1st Implementation Period
Admit Bulgaria as the eighth EU Member State of LifeWatch ERIC
Continue its participation in 4 ongoing and 10 new projects
Grow by 45,4%, with a total human potential of 33 employees
Bring the prototype of the Infrastructure up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6
Deliver 6 workflows at an operationally tested stage for LifeWatch ERIC IJI
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks
2022
2nd Implementation Period
Launch of new LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan 2022-2026
Update of the Internal Joint Initiative on Non-Indigenous Invasive Species
Development of LifeBlock and dockerisation of tools such as Jupyter Notebook
Consolidate its position in the EU Research Area, participating in 15 Horizon and 6 ERDF projects
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks
2023
2nd Implementation Period
First release of MyLifeWatch, personalised space for researchers to manage projects, collaborations, and access specialised tools
Upgrade of LifeBlock and NaaVRE services
Increase of computing capacity
First LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity and Ecosystem e-Science Conference (BEeS)
Launch of new Community Platform and consolidation of LifeWatching Science Channel
Consolidate its position in the EU Research Area, participating in 21 Horizon and 6 ERDF projects
Maintain a high-level dialogue with ERICs, RIs, International Organisations & Networks