ENVRI Community Winter School

The 2021 ENVRI Community International Winter School on Data FAIRness will be offered online from 11 – 22 January, 2021. Developed around the theme of “ENVRI-FAIR Resources: Access & Discoverability“, the programme will cover a range of topics including semantic navigation, Jupyter environments for visualisation and data discovery, resource access tools and cloud computing.

With a focus on supporting end users in making the best use of data, developing user-friendly interfaces and providing services to facilitate their interact with data, the curriculum will cover:

  • state-of-the-art technologies relevant to FAIRification of services
  • real-life use cases, to encourage adoption of new technology and enhance data centre functionality
  • enabling new knowledge-exchange networks for ENVRI data professionals.

Applications are invited, primarily, from ENVRI data centres staff, researchers and PhD candidates and offers will be restricted to a total of 30 participants, to ensure high quality outcomes. The selection process will be based on a mix of criteria motivation and use case descriptions.

The EU AgroEcology Living Lab & RI Network

The European AgroEcology Living Lab and Research Infrastructure Network CSA launched its preparatory phase online on 8–9 December, bringing together agricultural, land-use, ecological and research institutes, to prepare a framework that will enable the transition to an expansion of agroecology in Europe. 

Under the name of ALL-Ready, the project will address the multiple challenges that agricultural systems are facing today, including climate change, biodiversity loss, dwindling resources, and degradation of soil and water quality. Open Innovation Arrangements (OIAs), in particular Living Labs (LL), and Research infrastructures (RIs) are capable of showing the way to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of farming systems.

Chief Technology Officer Juan Miguel González-Aranda, is bringing to the table LifeWatch ERIC’s expertise in data management platforms, virtual research environments, and intellectual property rights technology – including LifeBlock, which guarantees the integrity and provenance of data – as a model of the e-Services vital to European AgroEcology Communities of Practice. 

ALL-Ready will follow a highly participatory and inclusive approach, using a living lab methodology based on experimentation in real life situations. Underpinned by principles of strong stakeholder engagement, the project has three phases: 

  1. this preparatory phase to define the vision, scope and mission for the Network, which will then enable the mapping of current and emerging LLs, RIs and OIAs across Europe and their characteristics, highlighting best practice 
  2. the preparation of different prerequisites/ activities for the Network regarding sustainability, funding, governance, capacity building, data and knowledge management, that will be tested in a small-scale pilot networks and refined, and
  3. communication of the outcomes of the work throughout Europe.

H2020 ALL-Ready CSA is supporting the co-design and establishment of the coming next EU DG-AGRI Programme on AgroEcology to be published by T4 2020-T1 2023, and granted by end 2023-early 2024.

The ALL-Ready partners are: 

  • Institut National de Recherche pour L’Agriculture, L’Alimentation et L’Environnement (INRAE)
  • Aarhus Universitet  (AU)
  • Ökológiai Mezógazdasági Kutatóintézet Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft (ÖMKi)
  • Johann Heinrich Von Thúnen-Institut, Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei  (TI)
  • European Network of Living Labs IVZW  (ENoLL)
  • Biosense Institute – Research and Development Institute for Information Technology in Biosystems  (BIOS)
  • Fibl Europe –  Forschungsinstitutfur Biologischen Landbau in Europa (FIBL)
  • Ecologic Institut Gemeinnützige (GmbH  Ecologic)
  • European Landowners Organization  (ELO)
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
  • Eigen Vermogen van het Institut voor Landbouw -En Visserijonderzoek   (EV ILVO)
  • The e-Science European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (LifeWatch ERIC)
  • The University of Sheffield (UOS).

Biodiversity & ecosystem research survey

In a new initiative to engage the scientific community, LifeWatch ERIC has launched an online survey to better understand their needs and to elicit their views on the important topics that will shape biodiversity and ecosystem research in the next 10 years.  

Consisting of only six questions, the consultation seeks to gather researchers’ insights into the key topics, challenges and solutions that will need to be addressed in the decade 2021-2030. The results of the questionnaire will guide the infrastructure in further developing the services and tools deemed most essential to the scientific community.

LifeWatch ERIC already provides e-Science research facilities in pursuit of its mission of increasing knowledge and deepening understanding of biodiversity organisation and ecosystem functions and services in order to support civil society in addressing key planetary challenges. 

Have your say in this consultation by following this link. It only takes five minutes, none of the questions are mandatory and you can save the questionnaire and come back to it later. At the end of the questions, you will be taken to a collaborative space where you will be able to drop us your ideas after you completed the survey. 

LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue

The release of the new LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue was announced on Friday, 20 November 2020, heralding an enormous step forward in the infrastructure’s capacity to offer researchers the innovative tools and services required to tackle the scientific challenges of today and into the future. 

LifeWatch ERIC resources and services, Virtual Research Environments, originally released by different member states, have now been united into a single catalogue equipped with descriptive metadata that allow users to retrieve and manage information in much greater quantities and at greater speed. It now consists of one unified VRE, workflows, datasets, services, and a research site.

The LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue is informed by extensive ontologies and thesauri that make the records findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, according to the FAIR principles of data management. The architecture is based on GeoNetwork 3.10 and allows users to manage metadata related to five kinds of resources:

  • Datasets, by using the EML 2.2.0 standard (60 metadata attributes)
  • Research Site, by using a customised ISO19139 standard (36 metadata attributes)
  • Services, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (40 metadata attributes)
  • Virtual Research Environments, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (25 metadata attributes), and
  • Workflows, by using a customized ISO19139 standard (25 metadata attributes).

Not only can metadata attributes be optional/mandatory and require single/multiple values, the LifeWatch ERIC metadata catalogue also enables, upon validation and verification, the creation of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for resources that do not already have one, by exploiting the GeoNetwork – DataCite connection. 

This combination of features will allow scientists and researchers, wherever they are in the world, to access data from multiple records and elaborate future models of biodiversity and ecosystem services and functioning under complex vectors of climate change, in a way that has never been possible before. 

As nations around the globe realise the need to change humanity’s relationship with Nature, it is timely that the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue provides the computing power and access to historical records to facilitate the examination of scenarios of change across vast spatial and temporal scales. Access the catalogue here.

CNR Senior Fellowship with PhD announced

The Italian National Research Council Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (CNR-IRET) has issued a call for applications for a new Senior Fellowship with PhD position, based at the Research Unit (URT) CNR-IRET at the University of Salento in Lecce, Italy, under the supervision of professor Alberto Basset.  Applications close on 30 November 2020.  With an initial research grant for two years, the successful candidate will conduct research activities within the Internal Joint Initiative of LifeWatch ERIC, on the topic of: “Short- and long-term responses of aquatic ecosystems to alien species colonisation and invasiveness”. The research programme covers:

  1. Data mining on species and ecosystem responses to alien species patterns of ecosystem colonisation and invasion,
  2. Data aggregation, curation, analysis and modelling using the LifeWatch ERIC virtual research environments, and
  3. Developing models required for the scenario development of species and ecosystems responses to recent and growing Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) invasion on model aquatic ecosystems. 

 Applicants must have a Master’s and PhD in an appropriate discipline – Biology, Physics, Chemical Sciences, Sciences and Technologies Forestry and Environmental, Sciences and Technologies for the Environment and the Territory, Mathematics, Statistical Sciences – and two years of professional experience, documented with scientific publications. Knowledge of ecological theories, open access digital archives, a good command of the English language and proficiency in Italian (for overseas applicants) are also required. Please refer to the official Selection Procedures in English document and its Italian original. Look for Bando IRET162020LE on the CNR site here. Applications will not be accepted after 30 November 2020.

TiBE2020 Metabarcoding and Metagenomics

Trends in Biodiversity and Evolution

9-11 December 2020, online. 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 Trends inn Biodiversity and Evolution 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 TiBE2020 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 programme, 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. Abstract submission deadline is 27 October, 2020. Click here to download the abstract submission template. 

AERAP virtual conference “A New Era for Africa-EU Science and Innovation Partnerships”

The Africa European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP) held a virtual conference on 9-10 September 2020, entitled “A New Era for Africa-EU Science and Innovation Partnerships”. Scientists, innovators, network policymakers and other stakeholders came together to advance the cause of Africa Horizon Europe Development and Cooperation. Since its foundation in 2012, the AERAP platform has widened its scope beyond radio astronomy sciences to serve as an engagement platform for broader Africa-EU science collaboration, one of its main results being ontgoing EU-AFRICA cooperation and the establishment of the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) Research Infrastructure https://www.skatelescope.org/.

LifeWatch ERIC was represented by its Chief Technology Officer, Juan Miguel González-Aranda, who made two presentations to help reinforce the infrastructure’s collaboration with African communities of practice on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research. The presentations emphasised not only the nature and potential of LifeWatch ERIC, but also the active roles of the co-chairs of the EU-AFRICA AERAP Working Group on Green Deal, Transition & Energy Access: González-Aranda on behalf of the European Union side, by representing the ENVRI cluster on Research Infrastructures as also Member of the ERIC FORUM Executive Board; and Georgina Ryan, Department of  Science and Innovation, Pretoria, representing the Government of the Republic of South Africa on behalf of the African Union.

SItE Roundtable event

SItE Roundtable

When the annual Congress of the Italian Society of Ecology (Società Italiana di Ecologia – SItE), planned for 14-18 September in Lecce had to be postponed until next year because of Covid-19, the organising committee, in conjunction with LifeWatch Italy and the Ecology Laboratory at the University of Salento, decided to offer its members a day of online Roundtables entitled “SItE – Towards Lecce 2021” to celebrate Ecology Day on 14 September. Around 300 registrations were made to follow the 20 presentations offered across a comprehensive range of topics:

• Ecosystem health and chemical mixture risk assessment and management

• Ecosystems and their services for human well-being 

• Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People

• Landscape ecology: sustainable landscape management, and

• Arctic and Alpine ecosystems in the face of climate change.

Dr Christos Arvanitidis was called up from LifeWatch ERIC to contribute to the Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People session, which was organised by the European Ecological Federation and chaired by its President, Cristina Maguas. Dr Arvanitidis’ talk was on the topic of ‘Biodiversity and Emerging Infectious Diseases: the role of the RIs in combating threats to public health’, starting with the connection between environmental factors during the Plague of Athens (430 BC) and moving forward on to how modern European Research Infrastructures (RIs) contribute to analysing the connections between human and ecosystem health. An RI like LifeWatch ERIC offers a one-stop disruptive technology-based architecture combined with docker technology, that guarantees authentication, transparency and reproducibility, which form the cornerstones of the modern process of scientific knowledge production. In addition, Dr Arvanitidis argued, it enables “the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation”. Click here to download the presentation. The 2021 Italian Society of Ecology congress will take place in Lecce, from 13 to 17 September.

Four post-doc positions at URT CNR IRET Lecce

Four post-doc positions have just been announced at URT-CNR IRET in Lecce for research activities in the framework of LifeWatch Italy.

The application deadline for all these calls is 10 September 2020.

Please check these attached documents for more information:

Development of data quality control and data analysis services in the context of e-Science 

Semantic technologies to support the distributed data centres of LifeWatch in biodiversity and ecosystem research

Development of a Virtual Research Environment for the implementation of scientific applications in a distributed cloud infrastructure

Harmonisation and analysis of morpho-functional trait data and the organisation of phytoplankton guilds.

The tripod frame: mooring acoustic receivers on the seabed

Acoustic telemetry

A new design to overcome the challenges of installing acoustic telemetry receivers on the seabed

Installing scientific instruments in a marine environment comes with many challenges. Equipment has to withstand the physical forces of tides, currents and storms. Researchers have to take into account the effects of biofouling, corrosion and human activities. Even access to the study site can pose its difficulties, as diving is limited by depth and weather conditions. Practical deployment mechanisms are therefore needed to sustain consistent data flows.

Acoustic telemetry enables the observation of animal movements in aquatic environments. Individual animals are fitted with a transmitter, relaying a signal that can be picked up by acoustic receivers. To facilitate a convenient installation of these instruments, the LifeWatch VLIZ team developed and tested a new design, mounting a receiver with an acoustic release on a tripod frame. This frame enables the recovery of all equipment and better yet, improves the quality of the data.

In a blog post published recently on Methods.blog, Jolien Goossens from Ghent University (and formerly LifeWatch VLIZ) tells us about the challenges of installing acoustic receivers on the seabed and this new tripod frame to overcome them. Click here for the full blog post and here for the scientific article published in the journal “Methods in Ecology and Evolution“.