Category: News

ENVRI-Hub NEXT Highlights from EGI2026

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:

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.

Showcase your Innovation Services and Success Stories

Developed through the ENVRINNOV project, the ENVRI Innovation Hub (EIH) helps ENVRIs strengthen their innovation capacity through services, tools, and training.

At the heart of the Hub is the Innovation Services E-catalogue, a growing repository of innovation services, testing facilities, and digital marketplaces, inspired and provided by ENVRI.

As research valorisation and innovation gain increasing importance, the catalogue offers ENVRIs an opportunity to showcase their capabilities, share success stories, and increase the visibility and impact of their work.

Become part of the EIH!

Submit your innovation service here: Innovation Service Request Form | ENVRI Innovation Hub

Submit your success story here: Success Stories Request Form | ENVRI Innovation Hub

EC Report Highlights ENVRI-Hub NEXT Among Key Climate Resilience Research Infrastructure Initiatives

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

ENVRINNOV at the 96th ESFRI forum meeting

The role of the ENVRINNOV project in enhancing ENVRI’s innovation capacity was highlighted at the 96th European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) forum meeting, which took place on 22-23 June, 2026 at the premises of the Cyprus Institute, in Nicosia Cyprus. The meeting was held under the Cypriot EU Presidency by the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy.

Prof. Jean Sciare, Director of the Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) at The Cyprus Institute and coordinator of the ENVRINNOV project, delivered a presentation on the Centre’s work and its alignment with ESFRI’s strategic priorities and broader EU objectives. His presentation highlighted key deliverables developed under ENVRINNOV, including the establishment of the ENVRI Innovation Hub (EIH), the ENVRI Innovation Roadmap, and other strategic resources produced within the project framework.

The meeting brought together ESFRI delegates from across European Member States and Associated States to discuss the strategic priorities and governance of the research infrastructure ecosystem, as well as progress towards the ESFRI Roadmap 2026, with a focus on coherence and long-term sustainability.

The 96th ESFRI forum meeting provided a valuable platform to showcase how ENVRINNOV is translating research infrastructure collaboration into concrete innovation tools for the ENVRI community. The project’s outputs, including the ENVRI Innovation Hub and the Innovation Roadmap, are designed to support the long-term competitiveness and impact of European environmental research infrastructures.

New Video: Showcasing the ENVRI-Hub at EGU26

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.

ENVRINNOV and GEORGE Showcase Cross-Domain Innovation at EGU2026

Innovation in environmental monitoring was highlighted at the EGU General Assembly 2026 in Vienna, Austria, where the ENVRINNOV project, in collaboration with the GEORGE project, organised a dedicated session bringing together experts from across the ENVRI community. The session included a diverse range of presentations, showcasing how emerging technologies, advanced services, and cross-domain collaboration are helping environmental research infrastructures respond to current challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and ocean degradation.

The session, entitled “Advancing Environmental Sciences with Innovation and Research Infrastructures,” which took place on 7 May, 2026, focused on the role of emerging technologies and service-oriented approaches in addressing major environmental challenges. It highlighted how environmental Research Infrastructures (RIs) across atmospheric, marine, ecosystem, and solid earth sciences are driving innovation in environmental observation, long-term monitoring, and data stewardship.

Previously organised online as the annual Innovation Workshop in Atmospheric Measurements, this year’s iteration took place at EGU 2026 and expanded beyond atmospheric sciences to include all the ENVRI domains. This created valuable opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange and strengthened collaboration across the ENVRI ecosystem, one of the main aims of the ENVRINNOV project.

The session featured 10 oral presentations and 10 posters showcasing advances in advanced and autonomous sensors, unmanned aerial systems, satellite constellations, Internet of Things (IoT) networks, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven approaches for environmental data processing and predictive modelling. Participants explored how these innovations can enhance interoperability, improve environmental observations, and accelerate the transformation of scientific knowledge into actionable insights for policy and society.

The session also highlighted the work of the GEORGE project, a collaboration between EMSO ERIC, EURO-ARGO ERIC, ICOS ERIC and research institutions, universities, and industry partners. GEORGE is developing innovative technologies and methodologies to improve observations of ocean carbon fluxes and carbonate chemistry in diverse marine environments, helping address critical gaps in ocean monitoring capabilities.

In addition to technological innovation, the session emphasised the importance of services provided by environmental research infrastructures, including Trans-National Access (TNA), FAIR data practices, interoperability frameworks, cloud-based infrastructures, and user-centred service design. These services play a key role in ensuring that ENVRI resources remain accessible, interoperable, and impactful for research, policy, and society.

By bringing together multiple environmental domains under a shared innovation-focused discussion, the session demonstrated ENVRINNOV’s contribution to strengthening collaboration, promoting innovation uptake, and supporting the development of a more connected and future-oriented ENVRI community.


GEORGE project received funding from European Union’s horizon Europe programme under grant agreement no.101094716

 

“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.”

 

ENVRINNOV Training Strengthens Innovation Capacity for ENVRIs

The ENVRINNOV project continues to strengthen innovation capacity across the ENVRI community through targeted training and knowledge exchange activities. As part of these efforts, ENVRINNOV organised its third and final pilot training session, “Innovation in ENVRIs: Intellectual Property Management and Technology Transfer,” during the EGU General Assembly 2026 in Vienna, Austria, on 6 May 2026.

The session brought together more than fifteen participants onsite and online, providing practical insights into Intellectual Property (IP) Rights, IP management in publicly funded research, and the technology transfer process. Through presentations and real-life examples from research infrastructures including ACTRIS and ANAEE, participants explored how ENVRIs can better protect, manage, and valorise their knowledge, technologies, and services.

This training session was the last of a series of capacity building sessions being developed to promote collaboration and establish a shared understanding of Innovation concepts and processes in the ENVRI community, including Technology Development, Technology Transfer, and Industrial Approach.

The training sessions are one of ENVRINNOV’s key outcomes in supporting the ENVRI community: strengthening innovation skills, fostering cross-RI collaboration, and creating a shared understanding of innovation practices that can increase the societal and economic impact of environmental research infrastructures.

To ensure that training resources are available after the completion of the project, materials from all three ENVRINNOV pilot training sessions will soon be available through the ENVRI Innovation Hub, developed by the project.

 

“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.”

 

ENVRINNOV drives Innovation for ENVRIs at EGU 2026

The ENVRINNOV Project team actively participated in the EGU General Assembly 2026, held from 4–8 May 2026 in Vienna, where they showcased the project’s key outcomes and demonstrated how Environmental Research Infrastructures (ENVRIs) can leverage these results to strengthen collaboration with industry and enhance their innovation capacity-building efforts.

 

ENVRINNOV at the ENVRI Community booth

For a second consecutive year, the ENVRINNOV project was one of the key organisers of the ENVRI Community booth. Project partners engaged with visitors throughout the week, sharing insights into the project’s activities, tools, and services, highlighting how ENVRINNOV can support ENVRIs in fostering innovation and strengthening industry engagement.

Mrs Marina Papageorgiou from The Cyprus Institute, the project coordinator, also hosted an interactive coffee chat at the booth. During the discussion, participants explored how the resources available through the ENVRI Innovation Hub, developed within the framework of ENVRINNOV, can support innovation and knowledge transfer within Research Infrastructures.

Training in Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Transfer

As part of the project’s activities at EGU 2026, ENVRINNOV organised a dedicated training session focused on Intellectual Property (IP) Rights, IP management in publicly funded research, and the technology transfer process. The training aimed to strengthen the Research Infrastructures’ understanding of innovation management and support the effective exploitation of research outcomes.

Session in Advancing Environmental Sciences with Innovation and Research Infrastructures

ENVRINNOV, together with the GEORGE Project, organised a dedicated session exploring innovation across environmental domains, including atmospheric, marine, terrestrial, and solid earth sciences. The session highlighted the role of emerging technologies and service-oriented approaches in shaping the future of environmental monitoring and advancing environmental research.

More information on the session and training will be published soon.

“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.”

The Upgraded ENVRI-Hub Launches for the Environmental Research Community

A new chapter begins for integrated environmental science with the public launch of the upgraded ENVRI-Hub. Developed over two years by the ENVRI-Hub NEXT project, this platform is now available to the research community, offering improved access to Europe’s environmental research infrastructures.

“This launch is a testament to the consolidated collaboration across our consortium of Research Infrastructures and e-infrastructures, which has also been showcased on major stages like the EGU General Assembly and meetings with international communities such as WMO.” Marta Gutierrez, EGI Foundation, ENVRI-Hub NEXT Project Director

Your Gateway to Environmental Research

The launch is built upon the solid foundation laid during the project’s first 18 months, transitioning from a promising blueprint to a powerful, operational reality. The upgraded platform, accessible via its refreshed landing page, integrates a suite of enhanced and new tools designed for researchers:

  • A Catalogue of Services  and Catalogue of Data: Serving as FAIR-compliant entry points, the Catalogues offer intuitive interfaces and API access libraries, streamlining the discovery of data and services across Europe’s research infrastructures.
  • The new ENVRI Knowledge Base transforms how you find information. Powered by advanced AI, it enables dialogue-based natural-language searches to quickly locate datasets, publications, and code across the environmental sciences.
  • An Analytical Framework supported by two harmonised Python libraries, allowing programmatic access to the Catalogue of Services and to the environmental research infrastructure’s datasets. 
  • A global design focussing on essential climate variables (ECVs) with new filtering options in the Catalogue of Services, specific indexation in the AI system, specific parameterisation possibilities in the Python libraries, and normalised by the iADOPT ontology to describe scientific variables in a common way.  
  • Single Sign On across the Hub services and integrated research infrastructures through ENVRI-ID, an EOSC-interoperable Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI), via a range of providers such as EDUGAIN, ORCID, Google and GITHUB.
  • In collaboration with our sister project ENVRINNOV, we have integrated an Innovation Hub. This new component connects scientific research with entrepreneurial vision, fostering the development of market-ready solutions and sustainable business models from environmental data.

“The 2026 deployment successfully integrates our core services, from the Catalogue and Knowledge Base to the Analytical Framework, into a cohesive platform. This technical milestone proves our architecture is robust and ready for community testing and validation. Beyond technical readiness, this also represents the foundational milestone in establishing the ENVRI-Hub as the definitive ENVRI Node within the EOSC Framework, bridging the gap between environmental science and EOSC.” Ulrich Bundke, Forschungszentrum Jülich & IAGOS, ENVRI-Hub NEXT Technical Coordinator

Contribute to the Launch

This new Hub is built for and with our community. We invite all researchers, data scientists, and stakeholders to explore its capabilities, test its features, and shape its future.

To introduce the platform, we have hosted a dedicated launch webinar on 23 April 2026, providing an overview and quick demonstrations of some of the Hub’s new features. We participated in several sessions at EGU26 in Vienna and hosted the first in-person short course about the ENVRI-Hub there. Watch our video!

Your exploration and feedback are crucial as we enter this exciting final year of the ENVRI-Hub NEXT project, focusing on community-driven refinement and widespread adoption. You can sign up for the ENVRI-Hub User Group to receive updates about meetings, consultations, training activities, and contribute to the future evolution of the Hub.

Explore the ENVRI-Hub

ENVRI-Hub Featured in ERCIM News Special Issue on Open Science

An article about the ENVRI-Hub was published in the April 2026 issue of ERCIM News on Open Science Experiences and Prospects

An article introducing the ENVRI-Hub was published in the April 2026 edition of ERCIM News (Issue 144), as part of the special theme “Open Science Experiences and Prospects”.

The article, titled “ENVRI-Hub: A Science Gateway for Open Environmental Research,” was authored by Federico Drago (EGI Foundation), Delphine Dobler (Euro-Argo ERIC), and Ulrich Bundke (Forschungszentrum Jülich / IAGOS AISBL) on behalf of the ENVRI-Hub NEXT project. It presents the recently upgraded ENVRI-Hub platform as a central science gateway for Europe’s environmental research, demonstrating how interoperable Virtual Research Environments can accelerate collaborative Open Science and make FAIR data actionable for tackling global challenges.

About the Special Issue

Guest edited by Leonardo Candela (CNR-ISTI) and Roberto Di Cosmo (Inria and University Paris Cité), the special theme explores the current state of Open Science across Europe. The editors note that while Open Science has become an operational requirement embedded in national strategies and funding conditions, fragmentation remains a key challenge. The issue brings together contributions on federated infrastructures, semantic frameworks, governance, skills, and operational experiences from major European initiatives.

The ENVRI-Hub article sits within a cluster of contributions focusing on operational experiences with federated science gateways, alongside pieces on the EOSC EU Node, the EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox, D4Science virtual research environments, and other initiatives.

About the Article

Our contribution describes how the ENVRI-Hub enables researchers to search for, access, and process datasets and services across Europe’s environmental research infrastructures. It highlights key components such as the Catalogue of Services, the AI-powered Knowledge Base, and the Virtual Research Environment interface, with a core focus on making Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) easily accessible and processable from all contributing sources. The article also emphasises the platform’s community-driven development and its alignment with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The full ERCIM News Issue 144 is available online.

Read the article