Category: News

ENVRINNOV: Compiling a catalogue of ENVRI innovation services

The first analysis of innovation services currently offered by European environmental research infrastructures has been developed and published by the ENVRINNOV project partners, as part of the project’s mission to create a common innovation roadmap for the ENVRI community.

This iteration of the catalogue lists ENVRI services provided by the ACTRIS, EMSO ICOS and eLTER environmental research infrastructures, extending beyond traditional data provision, highlighting the importance of tools and initiatives that drive innovation within the environmental research community.

The catalogue identifies a number of different services, which are categorized into areas that are of high relevance to innovation within the ENVRI community, such as:

– Research & Development: such as for the co-design of cutting-edge instrumentation, equipment, procedures, methodologies or techniques.

– Training and Capacity Building: through dedicated programs and workshops aimed at enhancing the skills of researchers and practitioners in utilising environmental data and tools effectively.

– Innovation Support: to foster innovation, including collaborative platforms, funding opportunities, and facilitating partnerships with industry stakeholders.

You can find the full information here.

In the coming months, the list of services will be expanded to include more research infrastructures across the ENVRI community, and it will be added to the ENVRI Hub.

If you’d like to be informed about the latest updates of the project and upcoming training opportunities, you can sign up to the ENVRINNOV project mailing list here.  You can also sign up to the ENVRI Community newsletter, to be informed about news, events or other opportunities from the ENVRI projects and the wider community here.

“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union, nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”

 

Join the ENVRI-Hub User Group

Are you a researcher, data scientist, or environmental professional passionate about open science and environmental research? Join the ENVRI-Hub User Forum, an engaged community working together to shape the next generation of environmental research infrastructure services.

Sign Up Here

Why Join the ENVRI-Hub User Forum?

As a member, you will:

✔ Engage with a Community: Connect with researchers, data scientists, and experts shaping the future of environmental research tools.
✔ Boost Your CV: Gain hands-on experience in consulting, testing, and validating digital research tools. Earn an official online certificate for completed training, which you can showcase on LinkedIn and your CV.
✔ Influence Future Training: Define your training needs and help shape tailored capacity-building programs to enhance research skills.
✔ Advance Your Expertise: Participate in customized training sessions to expand your knowledge of ENVRI-Hub services and environmental research tools.
✔ Test and Validate Cutting-Edge Tools: Collaborate with developers to test new interfaces and features, ensuring they meet real-world research needs.
✔ Provide Valuable Feedback: Share insights on how ENVRI-Hub services can be improved.
✔ Get Early Access: Be the first to test new tools and services before public release.
✔ Stay Updated: Receive exclusive insights into ENVRI-Hub developments, milestones, and upcoming features.

What’s Expected of You?

We value your time! Participation is flexible and low commitment:

  • Provide feedback via short surveys or usability testing.
  • Test new tools and share your experience with our team.
  • Attend occasional virtual or face-to-face meetups (optional but aligned with key conferences such as EGU).
  • Act as an ambassador by sharing ENVRI-Hub within your network.

What is the ENVRI-Hub?

The ENVRI-Hub is a one-stop platform providing seamless access to environmental research infrastructures, tools, and services across disciplines. Whether you’re working on climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem services, or other environmental challenges, the ENVRI-Hub equips you with interoperable data and tools aligned with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)—empowering groundbreaking research.

Ready to Join?

Become a founding member of the ENVRI-Hub User Forum and help shape the future of digital environmental research!

Sign Up Here

The ENVRI Community’s Updated Online Presence: Join us on Bluesky

Our social media presence is evolving to better connect with you and foster stronger engagement across platforms. As part of this shift, we are opening a Bluesky account to complement our existing channels and ensure we continue to meet the needs of the growing ENVRI Community in the digital age.

Bluesky is an emerging and vibrant platform that many research infrastructures (RIs), projects, and organisations in ENVRI have already embraced.

Our Updated Social Media Presence

This shift reflects our commitment to maintaining meaningful communication with our stakeholders while exploring new ways to engage with the environmental science community. Here’s how you can stay connected with ENVRI:

  • LinkedIn
    LinkedIn will remain our primary hub for updates, including project news, event highlights, and opportunities for professional networking. This platform ensures strong engagement with stakeholders and collaborators.
  • YouTube
    Our YouTube channel will continue to feature webinars, tutorials, and event recordings, showcasing the breadth of ENVRI’s work and serving as a rich resource for our community.
  • Bluesky
    Bluesky will become our newest platform for connecting with a growing audience of researchers, policymakers, and enthusiasts. It offers a dynamic space to share updates on environmental research infrastructures and community initiatives.
  • Newsletter
    Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter! It’s the perfect way to stay informed about ENVRI news, project updates, and developments from ENVRI-related initiatives. Sign up now!
  • X (formerly Twitter)
    While we may retain our X account to secure the handle, active posting will significantly reduce or stop altogether. Followers are encouraged to join us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Bluesky instead for the latest news and updates.

Building a Stronger Community

This move aligns with our goal of ensuring the ENVRI Community remains at the forefront of effective and impactful communication.

We look forward to connecting with you on these platforms and building an even stronger community for environmental research infrastructures.

Follow us on Bluesky!

Call for the IRISCC Transnational Access Peer Review Volunteers

The IRISCC (Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change Risks) project invites ENVRI Research Infrastructure communities  to join the IRISCC International Assessment Panel (IAP) by volunteering as peer reviewers for Transnational Access (TA) proposals.

We are seeking experts across the fields of natural sciences, earth and environmental sciences, atmospheric sciences, climatology, climate change studies, and social sciences. By becoming an IAP member, you’ll contribute to a fair and transparent merit review process that ensures excellence in research addressing climate change risks.

Why Join the IAP?

  • Collaborate Globally: Work with top researchers, academics, and professionals worldwide.
  • Make an Impact: Support groundbreaking research on climate change risks, benefiting both science and society.
  • Enhance Your Career: Peer review contributions showcase your expertise and active engagement in the research community.

About IRISCC

IRISCC unites leading European research infrastructures in environmental and social sciences to enhance society’s resilience to climate change risks. The project offers transnational and virtual access to cutting-edge services spanning observatories, experimental facilities, modeling, and data infrastructures.

Learn More and Apply

For details, including the Terms of Reference and the Expression of Interest form, visit the IRISCC project website.

The ENVRI community’s diverse expertise is invaluable for this initiative. If you’re interested, please contact the IRISCC TA Management Team or Coordination Office for further information. Both contacts are included on the IRISCC website.

Let’s strengthen the foundation of climate change research together!

eLTER Science Conference 2025: abstract submission deadline extended to 31 January 2025

The abstract submission deadline for the eLTER Science Conference 2025 is now January 31st!

Remember, your abstracts don’t need to be long. Every accepted abstract will receive a DOI, making your work permanently citable and widely accessible. Have in mind that the ARPHA Conference Abstracts (ACA) platform we are using allows for innovative publication that may also include data, citations, figures and tables. Video recordings of conference talks or graphic files of poster presentations can be uploaded after the conference and visualised on your article page.  Don’t miss this chance to showcase your work!

Submit your abstract here for the first eLTER Science Conference and join us in shaping the future of ecosystem research! More info & sessions  elter-ri.eu/science-confer

Deadlines: Abstracts: 31st January (extended) Registration: 25th April (no change)

We look forward to seeing you in Tampere, Finland, in June!

ENVRINNOV: Understanding capacity building needs & gaps on Innovation in the ENVRI community

Introduction 

The Horizon Europe-funded project “ENVRINNOV – ENVironment Research Infrastructures Innovation Roadmap,” coordinated by CARE-C at The Cyprus Institute, is working towards developing a common Innovation Roadmap for the environmental research infrastructures (ENVRIs) community. To ensure that all components of the project have a shared understanding of concepts such as Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Industrial Approach, ACTRIS-FR (CNRS), as part of ENVRINNOV-WP3-T3.2 “Capacity Building strategy for Innovation”, evaluated the needs and gaps of the community related to their knowledge on innovation.

To do so, ACTRIS-FR conducted a survey and a consultation to assess the current training landscape and evaluate training needs in parallel to desk research to list relevant trainings.

The results and analysis of these initiatives help us define the types of training that ENVRI participants need, how they prefer the training to be delivered, and how we can maximize the impact of the training.

About the Survey

A quantitative survey was designed in collaboration with WP3 partners. It was launched online via Microsoft Forms in July 2024 and is open until the end of September 2024. In total, 47 answers from 14 ENVRIs (out of 26 Ris involved in the community) were collected.  We note an uneven representation -thus the responses do not represent all Research Infrastructures (RIs) or domains evenly :

  • Terrestrial Ecosystem/Biodiversity: 5 RIs, 3 responses (2 RIs)
  • Solid Earth: 1 RI, 0 responses
  • Marine: 4 RIs, 3 responses (2 RIs)
  • Atmosphere: 7 RIs, 13 responses (2 RIs)
  • Multi-domain: 10 RIs, 28 responses (7 RIs)

Results

While knowledge of innovation and the creation of new services is relatively strong, respondents are less familiar with Technology Transfer, Technology Development, and moderately familiar with collaboration with industry.

  • 51% of respondents indicated that there is an innovation support officer/program or similar structure to encourage innovation.
  • 91% responded that their RI has initiatives related to innovation.
  • 87% said their institute is working on developing new products or services.
  • 85% are improving existing processes or methods.
  • 87% are already collaborating with external partners.

Training Needs

  • 69% expressed interest in training on Innovation Management, Technology Transfer, and Collaboration with Industry.
  • 46% showed interest in Marketing and Communication.

The top three topics of interest were:

  1. Commercializing Research (Market analysis, opportunity scoping, and business model development) – 64%
  2. Engagement with the private sector – 51%
  3. Negotiating Collaboration Agreements and Contracts (including IPR) – 53%

Training Preferences

Most respondents prefer shorter, periodic training sessions rather than large events with multiple topics. They prefer live, small-group training sessions, either in person or online, with longer sessions lasting from one day to two or three days.

Finally, a significant number of respondents expressed interest in being informed about training opportunities through newsletters or personal invitations.

Resources

54% of respondents said they can access training through their institute.

To complete the survey desk research was conducted to list existing innovation training resources. This list will be part of the ENVRI Innovation toolbox developed in the project.

 

Consultation

To get more direct feedback and interaction with potential trainees, a study of the ACTRIS community’s interest in innovation-related issues was carried out at the ACTRIS Week in Matera last November 2024. This live consultation helped us better shape the training innovation programme. Indeed, the question-and-answer session that followed the live slido survey facilitated a discussion between all stakeholders involved in the RI. Some members of the community do not necessarily feel directly concerned by these issues, as they are seen as additional to their existing scientific, technical, and administrative responsibilities. To address this, organizing an information session highlighting the importance of fostering innovation within ENVRIs could be a valuable first step. Such a session could showcase the tools available to support the community in creating an innovative ecosystem.

More detailed results can be found at this

Get Involved!

A first training session will be organized during EGU 2025 as a splinter session on Thursday 1st May 2025 afternoon.

This session aims to:

– Provide a general introduction to the concept of innovation in the context of ENVRIs, and how it can benefit RIs and the ecosystem.
– Demonstrate how the ENVRINNOV project can support ENVRIs in their innovation process.
– Explore ways of enhancing communication and collaboration between ENVRIs and the private sector as a means to accelerate innovation.

We warmly invite all members of the ENVRI community, as well as anyone interested in innovation in environmental research infrastructures, to participate in this interactive and engaging pilot training session. Feedback from this first session will help shape further training to be made available to the community.

Interested yet? Please express your interest by registering to this sign up form: https://forms.office.com/e/QRgHjAci5X

You can also join the ENVRInnov mailing list here to receive the most updated news on the project.

For any other enquiries get in touch via e-mail:

ENVRINNOV Project coordinators: Prof Jean Sciare- email: j.sciare@cyi.ac.cy,  Marina Papageorgiou- email: m.papageorgiou@cyi.ac.cy

For this specific task: Ariane Dubost: ariane.dubost@uca.fr or Flamine de Quatrebarbes: flamine.de_quatrebarbes@uca.fr

For more information and to follow-ups, please visit the ENVRInnov project website.

 

This news item was developed in alignment with ENVRINNOV Milestone MS3.3: Capacity building needs & gaps and available resources (M12). The ENVRINNOV project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101131426. Views and opinions expressed are however of those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

 

MS3.3 Capacity building needs & gaps and available resources

ICRI 2024: Summary of the ENVRI Community’s Contributions and Key Highlights

The International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI) 2024 served as a key event for the global research infrastructure (RI) community to discuss the role of RIs in tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. This year’s conference, held in Brisbane, was especially significant in framing climate change and sustainability as central themes in the global research agenda. Throughout the conference, the ENVRI community played a vital role in shaping the discourse, presenting new insights, and reinforcing the value of environmental RIs in addressing climate risks and advancing global sustainability.

ENVRI Community Activities at ICRI 2024

The IRISCC project side event at ICRI 2024 focused on climate risks, showcasing how environmental RIs are directly contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. IRISCC highlighted the importance of international collaboration among RIs, with the aim of building resilience through data sharing and integrated climate services. The event provided a platform for discussions on the role of RIs in addressing climate risks, emphasising their impact on global policymaking and environmental strategies. The side event featured talks from ICOS (Werner Kutsch), eLTER (Michael Mirtl), and IRISCC (Janne Rinne).

Another major highlights were the ENVRI-Hub NEXT, iMagine and PHENET presentations, which took place during a side event organised by EGI showcasing digital tools and collaborative solutions for RIs. Presented by Eija Juurola (ACTRIS ERIC), the session demonstrated how ENVRI-Hub NEXT is advancing interoperability among environmental data and services. The session also showcased the solutions developed in the iMagine project. Presented by Ingrid Puillat (EMSO ERIC), the talk explained how RIs cn utilised AI for high-performance image analysis. Finally, Stijn Dhondt (EMPHASIS) presented the PHENET project and outlined the real-world challenges and opportunities in managing and analysing large phenotyping datasets.

Main Conference Programme: ENVRI Community Representation

In addition to the side events, the ENVRI community was well-represented in the main ICRI 2024 programme. Several leading environmental RIs contributed to the discussions on the role of RIs in global science and climate action:

These presentations underscored the critical role of environmental RIs in providing the data, tools, and collaborations necessary for advancing climate science and sustainability efforts worldwide.

GERI: the Global Collaboration of ecosystem RIs

One of the side events at ICRI 2024 focused on the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI), a partnership of site-based research infrastructures dedicated to understanding the function and dynamics of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. The European partners, eLTER and ICOS, collaborate with international counterparts including TERN(Australia), SAEON (South Africa), CERN (China), and NEON (USA).

The session provided an overview of recent GERI activities, including a comprehensive landscape analysis of research infrastructures and use case studies—such as investigations into ecological drought—leveraging data shared across partner RIs. Discussions also addressed the critical need for concerted funding mechanisms across continents, engaging representatives from potential funding bodies to explore pathways for sustainable and collaborative support of GERI’s mission.

The Brisbane Statement: A Call for Climate Action

The Brisbane Statement, which emerged from ICRI 2024, served as a key outcome of the conference. This statement placed climate change at the forefront of global research priorities and called for stronger international cooperation to address the climate crisis. It highlighted the pivotal role of Research Infrastructures (RIs) in driving climate action, promoting a green transition, and fostering sustainable development through innovation in research.

The Brisbane Statement urged stakeholders to continue strengthening international RI collaborations, ensuring that RIs remain central to global efforts in combating climate change. It also emphasised the need for RIs to contribute to policy development, technological advancements, and the integration of diverse data and perspectives in tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change, health, food security, and sustainable energy.

Conclusion

ICRI 2024 reaffirmed the ENVRI community’s role in driving the global climate action. By highlighting the crucial role of RIs in supporting a green transition and addressing the urgent challenges of our time, the conference underscored the importance of continued collaboration, digital innovation, and interdisciplinary efforts to ensure a sustainable and resilient future for all.

AMRIT project gains traction with significant internal progress

The Horizon project AMRIT is on track to make waves in European marine research, as it accelerates its efforts to consolidate European Research Infrastructures and strengthen Ocean Observing activities. With a commitment of over €5 million from the European Union, AMRIT unites 26 leading European institutions to enhance the development of the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) and improve the monitoring of oceanic operations. Focused on fostering synergies, enhancing efficiency, and promoting knowledge-sharing, the AMRIT initiative aims to create integrated services and tools for monitoring ocean observing system operators and supporting governance structures.

The AMRIT project promises to be a game-changer for ocean research, providing essential tools to support operators and facilitate monitoring activities. These tools will range, for example, from parameterising buoyancy and creating JSON files for glider deployments to delivering standardized CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) cast files. Additionally, a mobile application is being developed to assist operators working in the field. The tools will feature reusable components—such as development bricks, widgets, and modules—that can be adapted to various national contexts and will be continuously improved, even after the AMRIT project concludes. At the core of AMRIT’s innovation will be the EOOS TSC ecosystem, which will be centered around a cutting-edge dashboard displaying real-time operational data. This digital ecosystem will streamline metadata flow, automate information exchange, and elevate the operational capacity of EOOS, ultimately advancing Europe’s ability to monitor and safeguard its oceans.

The project made a significant step forward this last November, marking the beginning of its IT developments, which are set to unfold over the next 42 months. In Liverpool, a dynamic team of developers and product owners gathered to lay the foundation for the project’s technological advancements.  The project team is adopting the SCRUM Agile methodology, which will drive collaborative development in “sprints” over the coming months. These focused work periods allow for continuous integration and improvement, with developers collaborating across different specialties. The first two-week sprint centered on building a community-sharing platform, refining tool specifications, and cultivating a strong team culture.

The significance of these IT advancements, especially in the context of global ocean observation, could be profound. Mathieu Belbéoch (WMO), the leader of AMRIT’s technical work packages, is confident that the project is on the right path, citing the enthusiasm and talent of the next generation of IT developers. Belbéoch emphasizes that the collaboration between developers and ocean observing experts is the key to ensuring that the final products meet the operational needs of users.

As the project progresses, AMRIT is welcoming participation from those who are eager to contribute to its development. The collaborative spirit of the initiative promises to foster lasting partnerships and create a sustainable legacy in the world of ocean research and observation.

In the coming months, expect to hear much more about this ground-breaking project as it begins to take shape and significantly impacts the future of European marine research.

If you have any questions, please email amrit@marine.ie, and we will be happy to answer them.

Registration Open: Atmospheric Research Infrastructures MOOC

ATMO-ACCESS project is proud to share the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) titled “Atmospheric Research Infrastructures: Sharing the future of our atmosphere” will start on January 20th, 2025.

This two-week course focuses on how atmospheric Research Infrastructures (RIs) support high-level research and inform political decisions for the benefit of society:

  • In the first week, you will learn about atmospheric constituents, their sources and impacts, and their complex interactions. You will understand the importance of sharing data and building robust networks between research communities.
  • During the second week, you will explore different ways to monitor the atmosphere through 3 RIs: ACTRIS, the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure; IAGOS, the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System; and ICOS, the Integrated Carbon Observation System.

The course is free and open to everyone with basic knowledge in general chemistry and an undergraduate level in science. It will be held in English with subtitles available in English, French, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and German.

Registration for the MOOC in now open on the France Universite Numerique (FUN) course platform.

Additional information about the MOOC is available on the ATMO ACCESS website.

The European Commission Announces the EOSC EU Node’s Transition to Full Production

The European Commission is pleased to announce the official launch of the EOSC EU Node services, marking a critical milestone in its goal to accelerate the adoption of Open Science across Europe.

Following the launch of the EOSC EU Node initial web presence in April 2024, this platform now serves as a gateway for researchers to:

  • Discover, access and use tens of millions of scientific publications, data and software.

  • Find and access services and tools from research infrastructures, technology providers, world-leading scientific clusters and more.

  • Use integrated compute, storage as well as interactive collaboration tools, applications and services free at the point of use.

  • Create teams and work together putting Open Science principles in practice to access a variety of tools, services, and resources designed to streamline and enhance their research efforts.

The platform supports users at every stage of the research lifecycle, fostering greater collaboration and innovation across Europe’s scientific landscape.

Newly Released Services

The full deployment of the EOSC EU Node includes a robust set of services that address key challenges in modern research workflows, allowing users to operate efficiently within data-intensive environments. The following tools are now live:

Bulk Data Transfer: Move data effortlessly to data-intensive execution environments. Learn more.

Large File Transfer: Streamline large file transfers online with added security and integrity. Learn more.

Virtual Machines: Design and conduct experiments with flexibility while ensuring reproducibility. Learn more.

Cloud Container Platform: Deploy cloud-native containerised applications that can easily scale. Learn more.

Interactive Notebooks: Create and share documents with real-time code execution. Learn more.

File Sync & Share: Enable automatic file syncing and secure sharing across locations and teams. Learn more.

These services not only facilitate collaboration across borders but also enable researchers to work with large-scale data, develop advanced simulations, and execute complex computations—all within a secure and highly integrated environment.

In line with its mission to promote Open Science, the EOSC EU Node is the first European-level node of the emerging EOSC Federation, which is envisioned to be a network of interconnected autonomous nodes, all operating under a common framework of standards, policies, and best practices. It welcomes contributions from scientific resource providers throughout Europe, known as Contributors within the EOSC EU Node ecosystem, are invited to share their data, software, services, and tools, expanding the rich ecosystem of resources available through the platform.

With the launch of these services, contributors can now access select core capabilities “as a Service,” allowing them to leverage EOSC’s infrastructure for their own projects. This federated approach to resource sharing is a key feature of the EOSC EU Node, creating a more collaborative and interconnected research environment.

As the EOSC EU Node continues to evolve, users and contributors alike are encouraged to stay engaged with the platform – not only by utilising and contributing to its services, tools, and resources, but also by sharing insights and providing feedback through the User or Technology Forum. Future updates will bring additional features and functionalities, further enhancing the capacity of researchers across Europe to pursue groundbreaking discoveries. The EOSC EU Node remains committed to supporting the European research community in its mission to accelerate scientific progress and innovation through Open Science.

For more information and to explore the newly launched services, please visit the EOSC EU Node website.