Slovenia

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Contacts

LifeWatch Slovenia

Karst Research Institute at Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts – ZRC SAZU
Titov trg 2, 6230 Postojna

Slovenia joined LifeWatch ERIC in 2017 and it contributes to LifeWatch ERIC through its National Distributed Centre.

Since 2016, LifeWatch has also been on the Slovenian national RI roadmap. The LifeWatch-SI National Consortium was officially established in 2015.

The LifeWatch-SI consortium consists of 10 partners from nationally and internationally recognised scientific institutions, universities, a regional park, a national museum, and an NGO, all active in the field of biodiversity and ecosystem research, with ZRC SAZU serving as the national coordinator and headquarters of LifeWatch-SI.

What We Do

BRDbase

The Database of Slovenian Bird Ringing Center (BRDbase) is an application that enables bird ringers operating at Slovenian Museum of Natural History to store and process data on ringed birds and birds found with the ring (recoveries).

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ProteusWatch vLab

ProteusWatch vLab is planned to be developed as an e-services access to infrared videos and images captured in the karst underground habitat of Proteus anguinus, the largest European cave amphibian, endemic to Slovenia.

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FOR-PLAT

The FOR-PLAT LifeWatch RI-SI data platform managed by the Slovenian Forestry Institute represents the first step towards the establishment of Data centre for observation, modelling and analysis of biodiversity in forest ecosystems in Slovenia.

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Karst Groundwater Habitats vLab

Karst groundwater habitats vLab is planned as an e-services that gives access to sensor data collected in the framework of the Slovenian LifeWatch project in order and to explore and analyse these data.

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Buoy VIDA

Marine Biological Station in Piran at National Institute of Biology keeps a large number of data from the marine environment (Buoy VIDA, vector data) that are available to researchers and decision makers for marine environmental research.

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Meteo station Jelševnik

The Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU installed a meteorological station with soil sensors in Jelševnik (Bela krajina) in SE -Slovenia, near the habitat of Proteus anguinus parkelj.

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Organisation

Several partners from the LifeWatch Slovenia consortium actively contribute, with new ecological research measurements and observations which are integrated into dedicated data and services for different ecosystem domains:

1. Terrestrial ecosystem: The Database of the Slovenian Bird Ringing Centre (BRDbase);

2. Marine ecosystem: Buoy VIDA, vector data service;

3. Forest ecosystem: the FOR-PLAT data platform;

4. Aquatic ecosystem, with two future virtual labs to assess and monitor inaccessible and unique karst groundwater biodiversity hotspots (e.g. Proteus anguinus and various cave invertebrates): ProteusWatch vLab and Karst Groundwater Habitats vLab.

This leaflet presents the LifeWatch Slovenia Distributed Centre, its main activities and organisational structure.

You can browse the leaflet online (full screen mode is available in the control bar) or download it by clicking on the three dots icon.

Projects

Problem-oriented Soft CLIL approach for LOTE

EcoLamb (ERANET SusAn)

ENVRI-FAIR

News from LifeWatch Slovenia

LifeWatch Slovenia hosted the 5th Thematic Service Workshop on Biodiversity Observatory Automation

On April 11, LifeWatch Slovenia recently hosted the 5th Thematic Service Workshop on Biodiversity Observatory Automation at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana. The workshop focused on reviewing and updating the requirements for effective biodiversity assessment in light of current environmental changes and biodiversity loss. The event had 33 participants who attended the workshop in person, while 30 others joined online. The workshop brought together experts to present the key achievements and obstacles in monitoring and observation approaches and discuss various stakeholders' drawbacks and needs through an extensive programme of twelve presentations. The event included a panel discussion among Prof Rudolf Meier from the Museum...

LifeWatch ERIC launches the 2024 Thematic Service Workshop Series

Last update: 1 February 2024 The LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Services, co-developed by the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities and National Distributed Centres, are a key component of the 2022-2026 Infrastructure Strategic Working Plan (SWP). They represent the key priority areas of eService construction in LifeWatch ERIC proposed by the National Distributed Centres. Activities, developments and physical outcomes of the LifeWatch ERIC Thematic Services, as eServices, Virtual Labs (vLabs) and more complex and complete Virtual Research Environments (VREs), are planned to be coordinated by Thematic Service Working Groups participated by scientists from both the National Distributed Centres and the Common Facilities, with...

LifeWatch Slovenia: new website launched

The new LifeWatch Slovenia website is online since 31 May 2023. It provides biodiversity and ecosystem researchers with facilities, data resources, web services and Virtual Research Environments. LifeWatch Slovenia remains fully integrated with LifeWatch ERIC in facilitating open data sharing, aggregation and modelling. Besides that, it offers immediate access to national priority projects, as in the case of karst groundwater habitat research and conservation of that national symbol, Proteus anguinus, the only exclusively cave-dwelling aquatic salamander in Europe. In 2022, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the Research Infrastructure Roadmap 2030 (NRRI 2030) in which LifeWatch was listed...

The LifeWatch Community Platform is here!

Roll up, roll up! LifeWatch followers and collaborators are cordially invited to the grand unveiling of the LifeWatch Community platform, now openly available to everyone! Who should become a member? Well, if you’re interested in biodiversity and ecosystem research, then you should! The content of the Community platform will be widely shaped by its members, allowing them to create and contribute to forums, add opportunities, jobs and events of interest to the community, and hold meetings and collaborative brainstorming together with other members. These features are particularly well-suited to the needs of partners involved in European projects focused on biodiversity,...

Voices of Women at LifeWatch ERIC for International Women’s Day

In preparation for this year’s International Women’s Day, LifeWatch ERIC International Gender Officer, Africa Zanella, had a clear request: amplify women’s voices. As explored in the “Gender, Equity and Research” campaign for last year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, statistically, we know that while more women than ever are getting involved in STEM, there are significant obstacles still to overcome for women in research. In light of International Women’s Day 2023, we have therefore created a podcast miniseries specifically dedicated to learning more about authentic experiences of women working in LifeWatch ERIC fields of interest. We asked scientists...

LifeWatch Slovenia Publishes New Research Paper

Researchers affiliated with LifeWatch Slovenia have published the research paper: “Karst Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems—Typology, Vulnerability and Protection” (Nataša Ravbar, Tanja Pipan). You can read the abstract below and click on the link to access it in full. Karst Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems—Typology, Vulnerability and Protection Nataša Ravbar, Tanja Pipan Karst groundwater dependent ecosystems (KGDEs) represent an important asset worldwide due to their ecological and socioeconomic values. In the contribution the main KGDEs of the Dinaric karst in Slovenia are presented. The main hydrological processes (i.e., extent, duration and frequency of groundwater inflow), the main biota and indicator communities, and the factors limiting the...

International Women’s Day 2022: Angela Piskernik

For International Women’s Day 2022, we at LifeWatch ERIC are putting eight scientists in the spotlight. Each of the LifeWatch ERIC member states has proposed a figure who has broken boundaries over the course of her lifetime, and is an inspiration to younger generations looking to pursue a career in STEM. As we explored in the podcast we recorded for The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, women are still underrepresented in various scientific fields, such as engineering, computer science and AI. Additionally, scientific research in general is not only unbalanced in terms of composition (33% female) but...

Completion of RI-SI-LifeWatch Project

In December 2019, the "Development of research infrastructure for the international competitiveness of the Slovenian RRI space – RI-SI-LifeWatch" project was granted by the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the European Regional Development Fund. The aim of the project was for the LifeWatch Slovenia consortium to build a network for monitoring and collecting biodiversity and environmental data obtained and processed through the acquisition of high-performance research equipment. With the help of the new research equipment from the RI-SI-LifeWatch project, the Slovenian consortium is now collecting a large amount of research data in digital form, which will be included in the...

LifeWatch Slovenia Project

The Slovenian Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy issued a grant decision on 23 December 2019 (from the ERDF) that will help LifeWatch Slovenia to enhance its international competitiveness. The LifeWatch-SI project grant of €2.6 million will enable the purchase of equipment to support the implementation of international research projects in monitoring and predicting the impacts of global changes on biodiversity. The research infrastructure, established in 2015, will be better able to collect, manage and save biodiversity data by establishing a tissue sample bank, an analytical centre, a molecular laboratory with the necessary software for analysing genetic diversity, and...

5th LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly

The Dirk Bouts Building in the Flemish Administrative Centre (VAC) in Leuven, Belgium, was the scene for the 5th LifeWatch ERIC General Assembly, from 11–12 December 2019, chaired by Gert Verreet. Composed of the representatives from all full Member States and observers, the purpose of General Assembly Meetings, the highest governing body of LifeWatch ERIC, is to set the overall direction and to supervise the development and operation of LifeWatch ERIC. At the heart of this 5th General Assembly lies the prototype of the LifeWatch ERIC Platform, an integrated initiative of LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities presented by the CTO, Dr...

2nd Dahlem-Type Workshop

The LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative was launched in October 2019 to design and construct a Virtual Research Environment capable of processing and modelling available data on one of the planet's most burning biodiversity issues, the proliferation of Non-indigenous and Invasive Species (NIS), in order to help mitigate their impacts. Development of a new Virtual Research Environment (VRE) is essential to further integrate the tools and services available in the LifeWatch ERIC web portal. The process will allow stakeholders greater ability to develop their research activities within the e-Science Infrastructure, whilst also clearly demonstrating the added value that LifeWatch ERIC's...

1st Dahlem-type Workshop

LifeWatch ERIC just launched an Internal Joint Initiative (IJI) focusing on the topic of Non-indigenous and Invasive Species (NIS) with the aim of developing new dedicated Virtual Research Environments. The IJI kicked off with the organisation of the LifeWatch ERIC 1st Dahlem-type Workshop: Current and future challenges of NIS in Europe, which took place from 14th to 18th October, in the Casa de la Ciencia, and the V. De Madariaga Foundation, in Seville, Spain. The choice of the Dahlem-type1 workshop stems from the desire of the infrastructure to use the most participative interdisciplinary approach in the search for new perspectives to...

LifeWatch ERIC Internal Joint Initiative

Non-indigenous and Invasive species (NIS) are considered a major threat to biodiversity around the globe: they can impact ecosystems in many ways by outcompeting or predating on native species. Who has not heard of the Burmese pythons in Florida that eat alligators? The negative impact of imported rats and cats that have decimated island fauna populations? However, the long-term impacts of NIS on ecosystem integrity are poorly explored, and policy-makers are often left without sufficient information to make wise management decisions. In the belief that the first steps in tackling biodiversity loss must be to improve our knowledge by developing...

50th Anniversary of NIB-Marine Biology Station Piran

When the Slovenian Consortium, LifeWatch-SI, was established in 2015, the National Institute of Biology (NIB) was a founding partner, but marine research and monitoring of seawater quality operations at the NIB's Marine Biology Station Piran began a long time before that. Indeed, in 2019, the interdisciplinary marine station is celebrating 50 years of physical, chemical and biological oceanography. The Marine Biological Station (MBS) was founded in 1969 by a small group of enthusiastic researchers and the very first premises were in small house located in coastal city Portorož. Today it is one of the largest departments within the National Institute of...

Towards a cultural change | First LifeWatch ERIC Scientific Community Meeting

The Scientific Community Meeting held in Rome from 27 – 29 May 2019 was designed to bring together the wider LifeWatch ERIC scientific communities of researchers and developers to generate and advance the discussion of the most promising lines of scientific development. In the view of the conference coordinator, Alberto Basset, Interim Director of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre in Lecce and Professor of Ecology at the University of Salento, the 3-day event hosted by the Italian National Research Council, leader of the Italian contribution to the infrastructure, "was a great success". A truly international event, the meeting boasted 150 participants from 12 different countries which, thanks to the contributions given by LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities and National Nodes (Belgium, Greece, Italy, Netherlands,...