Postponed: Empowering Biodiversity Research Conference II

Empowering Biodiversity Research Conference

Due to the current global COVID-19 crisis, the Empowering Biodiversity Research Conference has been postponed to 2021. 

Tervuren, Belgium, 14-15 May 2020.  Five years after the “Empowering Biodiversity Research” conference organized in May 2015, we would like to invite to the 2020 Conference on Biodiversity Informatics, for a new journey into the world of biodiversity data standards and tools. Projects that started five years ago are about to deliver what was promised and many new biodiversity informatics related projects have launched since then. Concepts such as Open Data, Open Access and Open Science are now increasingly recognised across disciplines and are changing the way science is conducted.

The time has come to find out what happened since our last conference! Let’s also look together at what is likely to happen next in the world of Biodiversity Informatics! So get ready for this fascinating conference which will take place at the AfricaMuseum, Tervuren, Belgium, on 14 and 15 May 2020. The objectives of the conference are to:

  • Explore and discuss the opportunities and strengths related to Biodiversity Informatics and Open Data & Open Science
  • Learn about Belgian research projects using biodiversity informatics tools to enhance their results
  • Network with fellow biodiversity scientists.

LifeWatch Belgium is one of the organisers, along with the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, the AfricaMuseum, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), the Meise Botanic Garden (Meise), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Université of Liège (ULiège), the VIB and the Belgian Science Policy Office (Belspo). 

For more information visit the conference website, click here for the programme,  check out the before and after workshops,  or go dirctly to registrations. 

Postponed: BEeS Conference

BEes

Ljubljana, Slovenia, 27-29 May 2020 was the original plan for the LifeWatch ERIC BEes Conference, which has been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not possible to organise an international conference and ensure the safety of participants in the current conditions, and we are following the guidance of national and global health advice.

Please do not to make any travel or accomodationn arrangements for this event. We thank all you potential participants for your patience and interest, but now is the time for us all to put our strengths together to fight this pandemic. New dates and conference details will be communicated as soon as possible.       

S4BioDiv 2020

Bolzano, Italy, 16 September, 2020. The S4BioDiv 3rd International Workshop on Semantics for Biodiversity has issued a call for papers. Authors are invited to submit for inclusion topics related the application and development of semantic technologies to support research in the biodiversity and related domains. In the light of the coronavirus crisis, the conference may need to be held virtually. The final format of the conference will be determined in June 2020.


The workshop, which is supported by LifeWatch ERIC, aims to bring together computer scientists and biologists, working on Semantic Web approaches for biodiversity, ecology and related areas such as plant sciences, agronomy, agroecology or citizen science related to biodiversity. The focus will be on presenting challenging issues and solutions for the design of high-quality biodiversity information systems leveraging Semantic Web techniques.

Click here for conference details and important dates.

Space and the 2030 SDGs

Online, 9 October 2020.  Today, from 12:00 to 14:00, LifeWatch ERIC CTO Juan Miguel González-Aranda will feature in a discussion to frame the contribution of space applications to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

By and large, space is not strongly referenced in the SDGs currently, and there needs to be a stronger articulation of the role and contribution of EU support mechanisms. Today’s workshop provides an opportunity to inform and educate the SDG leadership on how space fits in the overall scheme of delivering on the SDGs and Agenda 2030. The discussion, therefore will focus on broad technological principles.

The European Union, the United Nations and many other stakeholders have recognised the transformative nature of digital technologies and have committed to growing the digital economy globally. Clearly, this will comprise different applications and different manifestations in different parts of the world. This workshop will consider the theme of resilience in all its forms and how space can aid capacity building to achieve greater resilience, through the creation of partnerships and collaborations that will allow future space innovations to prosper. 

Please register for this ScienceDigital@UNGA75 event here. 

Agenda:

  • 12h00 Declan Kirrane, Chair, ScienceDigital@UNGA75
  • 12h10 Niall Smith, Head of Research / Head of Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland
  • 12h30 Thorsten Rudolph; AZO Space, Germany
  • 12h45 Juan Miguel González-Aranda, Chief Technology Officer, LifeWatch ERIC, Spain
  • 13h00 Francisco Colomer, Director, Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE), Netherlands
  • 13h15 Milind Pimprikar, CANEUS International, Canada
  • 13h30 Oscar Horacio Aguilar Colindres, Permanent Observer for the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC)
  • 13h45 Discussion
  • 14h00 Conclusion.

LifeWatch Belgium 2nd Users & Stakeholders Meeting

Online, 15-16 October 2020. Due to the current Covid-19 situation, this year’s edition of the LifeWatch Users & Stakeholders Meeting will be entirely online!

On Day One, 15th October, the Belgian LifeWatch partners will bring a series of user stories, while on Day Two, 16th October,, specific aspects of the Belgian LifeWatch infrastructure will be demonstrated.

Registration is mandatory. Please register here. After registration you will receive a personal Zoom link that will be valid for both days.

Agenda:

Day One – Thursday October 15th 2020: User stories

10:00-10:20:    General introduction LifeWatch Belgium

10:20-10:35:    The World Ocean Assessment, a global exercise supported by the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone (Leen Vandepitte, VLIZ)

10:35-10:50:    Downstream migration through a shipping canal: challenges on the road (Jenna Vergeynst, UGent)

10:50-11:00:    Interactive questionnaire: which training is needed in the future?

11:00-11:15:    Comparison of methods to model species habitat networks for decision-making in nature conservation: the case of the wildcat in southern Belgium (Axel Bourdouxhe, LifeWatch-WB)

11:15-11:30:    mARS/POLA3R (Biodiversity.aq)

11:30-11:45:    The need for accurate and comprehensive DNA sequence databases to reliably identify species of policy concern (Kenny Meganck and Sophie Gombeer, BopCo)

11:45-12:00:    15 minutes of questions

12:00-12:10:    Closure of day 1 (outlook, prospects)

Day Two – Friday October 16th 2020: Demonstrations

10:00-10:05:    Short introduction

10:05-10:25:    LifeWatch data R package (VLIZ)

10:25-10:45:    Agouti: A platform for managing wildlife camera-trapping projects (INBO)

10:45-11:05:    Exploring the landscape via the ecotopes with GIS software (LifeWatch-WB)

11:05-11:25:    POLA3R (Biodiversity.aq)

11:25-11:45:    The process of DNA-based species identification: bushmeat as a case story (BopCo)

Please don’t hesitate to circulate this event in your networks!

Click here to link to the agenda.

ENVRI Week 2021

Virtual Meeting, 1–5 February, 2021. ENVRI week is a week dedicated to Environmental Research Infrastructures. During the runtime of the ENVRI-FAIR project, it is organised once a year. ENVRI week hosts ENVRI-FAIR project related sessions as well as several other sessions targeting different groups of stakeholders.

ENVRI Week 2021 will take place, as last year, at the Hotel Elbflorenz in Dresden. More information about the meeting will come later this year. Don’t forget to follow the ENVRI-FAIR website for live event updates!

Smart Agrifood Summit

Málaga, Spain, 24-25 September 2020. Please note the changed dates! The Málaga Fair Trade and Congress Centre will host the Startup Europe Ecosystem for Open Innovation, the Smart Agrifood Summit. 

#Agrifood20, now in its third year, is an industry-leading event for the creation of innovative ecosystems digital transformation of the agri-food sector. 

Startup Europe is an EC initiative connecting startups, investors, accelerators, entrepreneurs, corporate networks, universities and the media through multiple networks. 

Click here to respond to this Call for Startups at the Smart Agrifood Summit. This is your chance to join the community and become amember of the ecosystem!

Environmental Economics: a Focus on Natural Resources

Environmental Economics Conference

Online, 19-20 November, 2020. The second international “Environmental Economics: a Focus on Natural Resources” conference will take place on Zoom, 19-20 November. Organised by the Laboratoire d’Économie d’Orléans and the Labex Voltaire, with the support of the International Network for Economic Research and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, the conference will feature more than 50 articles, selected from the great number of submissions made form all around the world. There will be four keynotes:

  • Anastasios Xepapadeas (Athens University of Economics and Business and University of Bologna): “Spatial Environmental and Resource Economics: An Overview” 
  • Lucas Bretschger (ETH Zurich): “Efficient climate policy based on resource economics”
  • Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva (Bank for International Settlements): “Green Swans as Global Risks”, and
  • Richard Tol (Sussex University): “Testing the Dismal Theorem”.

Please click here for the conference website.  For any enquiries please email the conference organisers.

TiBE2020 Metabarcoding and Metagenomics

Online, 9-11 December 2020. The tenth edition of the Trends in Biodiversity and Evolution (TiBE) conference will be virtual this year and focus on Metabarcoding and Metagenomics. The meeting, held over three afternoons, will discuss exciting developments associated with the advent of ever more powerful DNA sequencing technologies, which are opening possibilities to explore the living world in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago.

This annual event is organised by CIBIO-InBIO, the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, connected through PORBIOTA with LifeWatch Portugal. It brings together senior researchers, post-graduate and graduate students working in the fields of biodiversity and evolutionary biology, to discuss cutting-edge findings in topics related to metabarcoding and metagenomic techniques, and their application in ecological and environmental research. The Conference is jointly organised by the CompBio and ApplEcol research groups. It will be hosted on an online platform that will facilitate networking opportunities and allow poster presentations. The program, including both plenary and short presentations from selected abstracts, is divided into three sessions:

• Molecular surveys of biodiversity and invasive species

• Next generation biomonitoring of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

• Understanding species in interactions in complex ecosystems.

Abstracts are invited either as 15-minute oral presentations, or as 2-minute poster videos. Please note that only registered participants will be accepted as presenting authors. The abstract submission deadline is 27 October, 2020.

Aquaculture Europe 2020

Aquaculture Europe 2020

Online, 12-15 April 2021.  Please note that Aquaculture Europe 2020  – The Blue and the Green – has been postponed until April 2021. The conference will still bring together stakeholders from many diverse disciplines to discuss and debate cross cutting issues such as new circular economies, life-long health and environmentally sustainable production.

There is now momentum in all aspects of food production towards a circular economy whereby waste is no longer regarded as a problem to be disposed of, but as a resource which can be reused, thereby closing the loop on aquaculture inputs and outputs and reducing environmental impact. 

Aquaculture is well placed to take the lead in the Blue – Green Bio-Economy, by demonstrating the efficacy of new technologies. And in terms of societal impact, recent research shows that aquaculture products, from seaweed to salmon, should be included as part of a balanced diet.

Click here for full details and registration to the Aquaculture Europe 2020 Conference.