Team

Find out more about the team behind LifeWatch ERIC.

LifeWatch ERIC employs an international staff with wide-ranging expertise and multidisciplinary skills. Staff members, roles and contact details are displayed below.

Are you interested in joining the team? Click here to browse our job opportunities.

AllExecutive BoardQuality Assurance & Risk ManagementStatutory SeatICT CoreService CentreVLICAdministration & FinanceCommunicationProjectsHRICTScientific NetworkingTraining
 
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Christos  Arvanitidis

Chief Executive Officer

Lucas de Moncuit

Chief Financial Officer

Alberto Basset

Interim Director of Service Centre

Peter H. van Tienderen

Interim Director of VLab & Innovation Centre

Giovanna Caputi Iambrenghi

General Assembly & Research Infrastructure Committee Support

Cristina Huertas-Olivares

Senior Scientific Officer & Executive Board Support

Maite Irazábal Plá

Scientific Coordination Support

Rocío Mantero Cejudo

Quality & Project Engineer

María Pérez Fernández

Global Project Manager

Ana Bajandas

Project Manager

Javier Saenz Reina

Finance & Accounting Officer

Elena Delgado Rivera

People & Culture Manager

Hooi Sung Lim

Quality Assurance & Risk Management Officer

Javier Lopez Torres

Procurement & Institutional Relationship Officer

Antonio José Sáenz Albanés

e-Infrastructure Operations Coordinator

Francisco Manuel Sanchez Cano

e-Infrastructure Resource Integration Coordinator

Joaquin Lopez Lerida

Data e-Science Management Plan & BlockChain Officer

Adrian Guerrero Bermudez

Hybrid Cloud Data Centre & Software Systems Operation Manager

Emilio Luis Jara Fontacaba

Distributed e-Infrastructure Control & Network Systems Manager

Julio Paneque

Principal Software Engineer

Pablo Santos Ortiz

Full Stack Developer

José Antonio Zaíño Rodríguez

Full Stack Developer

Jose Manuel Avila Castuera

Senior Scientific Manager

Iria Soto Embodas

Senior Scientific Manager

Ana Mellado Garcia

Senior Scientific Manager

Xavier Rotllan Puig

Data Management Specialist

Mariela Pino García

ICT Core Project Manager

Javier Saura Rascón

Project Manager

Eleonora Romano

Administrative Officer

Irene Matteo

Administrative Assistant

Cosimo Vallo

Training Officer

Eleonora Parisi

EU Project Training Officer

Sara Montinaro

Chief Communication Officer

Laura Caciagli

Science Communication Specialist

Cristina Mancarella

Digital Communication Officer

Madeira Scauri

EU Project Communication Officer

Ant Türkmen

Scientific Community Networking Officer

Vanessa Marrocco

EU Project Scientific Community Networking Officer

Lucia Vaira

Service Centre ICT Coordinator

Eftychia Tzafesta

EU Project Data Science Specialist

Majid Fiaz

Web Developer

Parham Ramezani

ICT Ontology Junior Developer

Pierluigi Calasso

Help Desk Technician

Nikos Minadakis

Semantic Engineer

Zhiming Zhao

VLIC Technical Manager

Gabriel   Pelouze

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

Spiros Koulouzis

Virtual Research Environment Developer

Koen Greuell

Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments Developer

Jacco Konijn

Project Manager

Statutory Seat

Christos Arvanitidis

Christos
Arvanitidis


Chief Executive Officer


Executive Board

Elena Delgado

Elena
Delgado Rivera


People & Culture Manager



María Pérez

María
Pérez Fernández


Project Administrative Coordinator



lucas

Lucas
de Moncuit


Chief Financial Officer


Executive Board

huertas_rz

Cristina
Huertas-Olivares


International Initiatives & Projects Manager


saenz_reina_rz

Javier
Saenz Reina


Finance Officer



Ana Bajandas

Ana
Bajandas


Project Manager for
EU-funded Projects



Hooi Sung LIM

Hooi Sung
Lim


Quality Assurance & Risk Management Officer


caputi_rz

Giovanna
Caputi Iambrenghi


National Nodes Operations
Manager



mantero_rz

Rocío
Mantero Cejudo


Quality and Project Engineer



ICT-Core

avila_rz

José Manuel
Ávila-Castuera


Agroecology Coordinator



Joaquin Lopez

Joaquín
López Lerida


Data e-Science Management Plan & BlockChain Officer


Mariela-Pino

Mariela
Pino García


Data Analytics Project Manager



pablo

Pablo
Santos Ortiz


Full Stack Developer



Adrian Guerrero

Adrián
Guerrero Bermúdez


Hybrid Cloud Datacentre Systems & Operations Manager


lopeztorres_rz

Javier
López-Torres


Procurement & Institutional Relationship Officer


Xavier Rotllan-Puig

Xavier
Rotllan-Puig


Data Management
Specialist



Javier Saura PhotoLW

Javier
Saura Rascon


Project Executive Assistant



Maite Irazábal Plá

Maite
Irazábal Plá


EU-LAC Fundraising, Networking & Projects Manager


Ana Mellado

Ana
Mellado García


Project Executive Coordinator



saenz_albanes_rs

Antonio José
Sáenz Albanés


e-Infrastructure Operations
Coordinator



Iria Soto

Iria
Soto Embodas


Agroecology Project Manager



Emilio Jara

Emilio Luis
Jara Fontacaba


Distributed e-Infrastructure Control & Network Systems Manager

Julio_Paneque

Julio
Paneque


Intelligent Systems, Robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & HAPS Expert

cano_rz

Francisco Manuel
Sánchez Cano


e-Infrastructure Resource Integration Coordinator


Service Centre

Alberto Basset

Alberto
Basset


Interim Director of Service Centre


Executive Board

Sara Montinaro

Sara
Montinaro


Chief Communication Officer



IMG_6323

Eleonora
Romano


Administrative Officer



Laura Caciagli

Laura
Caciagli


Science Communication Specialist



Eleonora Parisi

Eleonora
Parisi


EU Project Training Officer



Lucia_ridim

Lucia
Vaira


Data and Service Architect



Cristina Mancarella

Cristina
Mancarella


Digital Communication Officer



efh_20240708161028_296147_0e326_62fe1

Parham
Ramezani


Knowledge Engineer - ICT Ontology Developer


CosimoVallo

Cosimo
Vallo


Training Officer



Vanessa Marrocco

Vanessa
Marrocco


EU Project Scientific Community Networking Officer


Madeira Scauri

Madeira
Scauri


EU Project Communication Officer



Irene Matteo

Irene
Matteo


Administrative Assistant


Turkmen Profil

Ant
Türkmen


Scientific Community Networking Officer


Virtual Laboratory & Innovations Centre

peter

Peter H.
van Tienderen


Interim Director of VLIC


Executive Board

portrait

Koen
Greuell


Developer for Cloud-based Virtual Research Environments


Jacco_2.jpg

Jacco
Konijn


Project Manager



gabriel pelouze

Gabriel
Pelouze


Virtual Research Environment Developer


ZhimingZhao20

Zhiming
Zhao


VLIC Technical Manager



Spiros Koulouzis

Spiros
Koulouzis


Virtual Research Environment Developer


Development of VREs for Ecosystem Simulation (2026)

  • Creating virtual models of ecosystems to predict environmental changes.
  • Enhancing conservation strategies through AI-driven simulations.

Data Standardization & FAIR Principles Implementation (2025/2026)

  • Developing best practices for data curation and sharing.
  • Ensuring biodiversity data aligns with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) standards.

Collaborative Research & Case Studies (2025/2026)

  • Conducting pilot projects to test new monitoring methods.
  • Publishing scientific and popular science papers and reports on advancements in biodiversity assessment.

Meetings, Webinars, International Conferences & Networking (2025/2026)

  • Organising and participating at discussions on emerging technologies in biodiversity monitoring.
  • Organising webinars on machine learning, eDNA analysis, and automated data collection.
  • Fostering collaboration between researchers, technologists, and decision-makers.

Fund raising

  • End of January 2025 – Establishing a WG Committee on scouting project application opportunities and fundraising

Organising WG workshops and conferences

  • End of January 2025 – Setting priority research lines and contributions to the BEeS 2025 LifeWatch Conference for the session on the “Ecological responses to climate change”
  • March/April 2025 (TBD) – Workshop ‘Ecological modelling and eco-informatics to address functional responses of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate change’ co-organized with the University of Salento
  • 30 June – 3 July 2025 – Participation to LifeWatch 2025 BEeS Conference on “Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis”

Implementing services

  • End of January 2025 – Internal distribution of a questionnaire on the most used/relevant model resources in the WG member research activity
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders

Mapping user requirements

  • End of January 2025 – Catalogue of services already available in LifeWatch ERIC or research lines addressing ecological responses to climate change
  • February 2025 (TBD) – Online working table on setting priorities, timeline and milestones for the mapping service and model requirements by scientists and science stakeholders
Bulgaria

The Bulgarian National Distributed Centre is represented by the  Agricultural University-Plovdiv.

To know more about how Bulgaria contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Spain

The Spanish National Distributed Centre is supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Guadalquivir River Basin Authority (Ministry for Ecological Transition-MITECO). Moreover, Spain is the hosting Member State of LifeWatch ERIC, the location of its Statutory Seat & ICT e-Infrastructure Technical Office (LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities). 

To know more about how Spain contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Slovenia

The Slovenian National Distributed Centre is led by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). It focuses on the development of technological solutions in the field of biodiversity and socio-ecosystem research.

To know more about how Slovenia contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Portugal

The Portuguese National Distributed Centre is managed by PORBIOTA, the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity. Led by BIOPOLIS/CIBIO-InBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, PORBIOTA connects the principal Portuguese research institutions working in biodiversity.

To know more about how Portugal contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Netherlands

The Dutch National Distributed Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. Moreover, The Netherlands hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Virtual Laboratory and Innovation Centre.

To know more about how The Netherlands contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Italy

The Italian National Distributed Centre is led and managed by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and is coordinated by a Joint Research Unit, currently comprising 35 members. Moreover, Italy hosts one of the LifeWatch ERIC Common Facilities, the Service Centre.

To know more about how Italy contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Greece

The Greek National Distributed Centre is funded by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology and is coordinated by the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, in conjunction with 47 associated partner institutions.

To know more about how Greece contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.

Belgium

The Belgian National Distributed Centre makes varied and complementary in-kind contributions to LifeWatch ERIC. These are implemented in the form of long-lasting projects by various research centres and universities distributed throughout the country and supported by each respective political authority.

To know more about how Belgium contributes to LifeWatch ERIC, please visit our dedicated webpage.