LifeWatch ERIC at the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting 2023

The British Ecological Society Annual Meeting from 12-15 2023 December in Belfast offered LifeWatch ERIC the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of the infrastructure’s cloud-based and free data management facilities and many chances to network and understand what tools and services biodiversity and ecosystem researchers most want. The British Ecological Society is the oldest association for ecologists and the largest in Europe, boasting more than 7,500 members worldwide. 

Eight researchers from LifeWatch ERIC, the Italian National Research Council and the University of Salento presented their work on biodiversity loss, climate change and invasive alien species. Angela Carluccio and Alexandra Nicoleta Muresan gave oral presentations online. Daniel Crespo, Cristina Di Muri, Lucia Fanini, Vanessa Marrocco, Justine Pagnier and Jessica Titocci attended the whole conference and actively directed participants to the LifeWatch ERIC stand in the main hall, helping maintain a presence, answering enquiries and distributing branded merchandise. An online survey canvassing researchers’ data requirements was particularly popular.

Plenary presentations by Isabella Tree (author of ‘Wilding’), Stuart Davies (ForestGEO) and Jane Stout (Trinity College Dublin) provided worrying updates on the complex challenges facing planet Earth but also offered glimmers of hope in that Ecology has demonstrated its central role in governance and policy at all levels.

LifeWatch ERIC’s sponsorship of the Poster Sessions captured the attention of many of the 1300 ecologists present, and Chief Executive Officer Christos Arvanitidis and Service Center Director Alberto Basset contributed enthusiastically to answering enquiries about the rapidly evolving tools and services to accelerate and extend the scales of biodiversity and ecosystem research.