From 21 to 24 September 2026, the ENVRI Community and ENVRI-Hub NEXT partners gathered in Ghent, Belgium, for EGI2026. Throughout the week, project partners showcased how the live ENVRI-Hub simplifies cross-domain environmental research by providing improved access to observation data across atmospheric, marine, terrestrial, and biodiversity domains.

Internal Consortium All-Hands Meeting

Before the public conference opened, the ENVRI-Hub NEXT consortium met on 21–22 September for a dedicated in-person project meeting. Beneficiaries and associated partners gathered to review cross-cutting technical developments, examine live system demonstrations, and assess key performance indicators. With the project concluding in January 2027, the meeting allowed partners to align on final action plans for system deployment and sustainability in preparation for the project’s final review.

Our Hosted Session: Aligning Environmental Data

On Wednesday, 23 September, ENVRI-Hub NEXT hosted its dedicated session, “Aligning and exploiting environmental data to overcome global challenges.” Convened by Federico Drago and Marta Gutierrez David (EGI Foundation), the session explored how the ENVRI-Hub acts as an operational blueprint for thematic e-infrastructure integration.

The session featured technical presentations detailing core platform capabilities:

• The ENVRI-Hub as a Collaborative Blueprint – Marta Gutierrez David (EGI Foundation) & Ulrich Bundke (FZJ / IAGOS)
• The EOSC ENVRI Node – Anca Hienola (Finnish Meteorological Institute – FMI)
• Enabling Access to Harmonised ECV Datasets – Tjerk Krijger (MARIS B.V. / SeaDataNet)

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Marta Gutierrez David, featuring Anabela Oliveira (LNEC / OPENCoastS), Delphine Dobler (Euro-Argo ERIC), Gabriel Pelouze (LifeWatch ERIC), and Ulrich Bundke (FZJ / IAGOS). The panellists role-played the different steps in the research data value chain, and exchanged perspectives on balancing high-level Essential Variable abstraction with domain-specific user needs, achieving deep operational interoperability within Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and preparing research infrastructures for AI-driven data analysis.

Demonstrations, Posters, and EOSC Integration

ENVRI-Hub NEXT representatives contributed to the broader EGI2026 program through multiple interactive sessions and exhibition activities:

• Digital Poster: Dario De Nart (CREA / AnaEE ERIC) presented “The ENVRI-Hub: A Blueprint for Thematic E-Infrastructure Integration and Cross-Domain Research Support,” highlighting how the platform’s Catalogue of Services and AI-powered Knowledge Base reduce data friction.
• EOSC Evolution Forum: Anca Hienola participated in the panel “Evolution of EOSC,” presenting the thematic setup and progress of the ENVRI Node.
• Platform Demos & Talks: Alessandro Turco (EPOS ERIC) showcased the EPOS open-source platform Backoffice application, while Tjerk Krijger delivered a talk on direct and harmonised access to marine in-situ observation data from SeaDataNet during the Open Science in Action track.
• Exhibition Booth: Project factsheets and promotional materials were featured at the central booth, welcoming delegates to test the live platform.

Getting Ready for the EOSC Symposium in Florence

With EGI2026 successfully wrapped up, the ENVRI-Hub NEXT team is turning its focus to the EOSC Symposium in Florence, Italy. The project will actively support the ENVRI Node booth in the exhibition hall, showcasing its live tools, user-group onboarding pathways, and federated analytical capabilities to the broader EOSC community.

• Try the ENVRI-Hub
• Join the User Group: Sign up to receive an invitation to our next online meeting on 10 November 2026 via the ENVRI-Hub User Group page.

A new European portfolio analysis recognises ENVRI-Hub NEXT among the cross-cutting initiatives helping to connect research infrastructures, data and modelling capabilities across multiple climate-risk domains.

The report, Research Infrastructures for Climate Resilience: Mapping the European portfolio across climate risks and adaptation pathways, examines 38 projects representing more than €300 million in EU funding. It explores how Europe’s investment in research infrastructures contributes to climate resilience priorities and identifies opportunities for future EU Framework Programmes.

The analysis finds that Europe has developed a mature and highly interconnected research infrastructure landscape, broadly aligned with the priorities of the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA). Environmental research infrastructures, supported by increasingly advanced digital services and modelling platforms, provide a strong scientific foundation for climate resilience policy and risk management.

“Europe’s climate resilience depends on how effectively we connect what we observe to how we act. ENVRI-Hub NEXT provides that crucial bridge, uniting environmental Research Infrastructures data across domains to deliver actionable insights where it matters most.“ Marta Gutierrez, ENVRI-Hub NEXT Project Director (EGI Foundation)

Bridging Environmental Observations Across Domains

The report places ENVRI-Hub NEXT within the Ecosystems risk cluster, which dominates the climate resilience RI portfolio with €99 million across 12 projects. This cluster aligns with EUCRA’s “More Action Needed” urgency score, confirming that Europe possesses a world-class, well-resourced scientific foundation for monitoring biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, ocean change and atmospheric processes.

The report specifically highlights how ENVRI-Hub NEXT builds common services across major infrastructures such as ACTRIS, ICOS, Euro-Argo, EPOS, IAGOS, eLTER, LifeWatch ERIC, and AnaEE-ERIC. Through shared metadata standards, interoperable catalogues, virtual research environments and integrated access services, the project enables researchers to combine observations from multiple Earth-system domains. This is particularly relevant for climate resilience challenges, where understanding interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems and human activities requires integrated rather than sectoral approaches.

The report also notes that ENVRI-Hub NEXT advances the implementation of FAIR data principles, facilitating access to environmental data and increasing its usability for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders. This aligns closely with the project’s mission to provide a unified gateway to Europe’s environmental research infrastructures, making Essential Variables, a set of variables that allows scientists, scientists and policymakers to monitor the health of our changing planet, discoverable and processable across all contributing sources.

“The document underscores what we have been building: a technical framework that allows researchers to move seamlessly across infrastructures. Our work on shared metadata, interoperable catalogues, and integrated access services is now being recognised as a critical component of Europe’s climate resilience infrastructure.” Ulrich Bundke, ENVRI-Hub NEXT Technical Coordinator (Forschungszentrum Jülich / IAGOS) 

The Path from Data to Climate Action

The report recommends further investment in integrated research infrastructure ecosystems, wider access to facilities and services, and stronger pathways for turning scientific knowledge into decision-ready climate intelligence. These priorities are central to ENVRI-Hub NEXT’s work.

By connecting environmental observations, data resources and analytical capabilities, ENVRI-Hub NEXT supports research that can contribute to more effective climate adaptation, preparedness and risk management. The report provides valuable independent recognition of the role that connected and accessible research infrastructures can play in building a more climate-resilient Europe.

Explore the ENVRI-Hub platform

Meet us at EGI2026 in Ghent

Following a successful week at the EGU General Assembly 2026 (EGU26) in Vienna last month, the ENVRI-Hub NEXT project has released a short overview video capturing its main message from the event.

At EGU26, the project team actively engaged with the geoscience community at the ENVRI Community booth, showcasing the newly launched, upgraded version of the ENVRI-Hub across several oral and poster sessions.

A major highlight of the conference was hosting the project’s very first in-person training short course. The session provided researchers with hands-on experience navigating the hub’s features and demonstrated how the platform simplifies interdisciplinary science by integrating cross-domain environmental data into a single, cohesive Virtual Research Environment (VRE).

The new overview video features insights from key project members, including:

• Marta Gutierrez (EGI Foundation, Project Director)

• Ulrich Bundke (FZJ / IAGOS, Technical Coordinator)

• Tjerk Krijger (MARIS B.V. / SeaDataNet, ECV Task Force Co-Lead)

• Eleonora Parisi (LifeWatch ERIC, Training Task Lead)

Watch the Video and Explore the Hub

The video is now available to watch below. If you missed the team in Vienna or want to explore how the newly upgraded platform can support your own research workflows, the single gateway is open, fully functional, and completely free to use.

Test the upgraded platform today: Visit the ENVRI-Hub.

For more updates on upcoming workshops and technical developments, sign up for the ENVRI Community Newsletter.

*** The ENVRI-Hub NEXT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101131141.