The LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference

LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience Conference (BEeS) is back! The event took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 7 to 10 July. BEeS is LifeWatch ERIC’s flagship forum for eScience in biodiversity and ecosystem research, emphasising interoperable data, reproducible workflows, and reusable digital services.

BEeS 2026 brought together scientists, experts, and innovators to explore challenges and emerging opportunities in biodiversity and ecosystem science. The conference addressed critical topics including biodiversity conservation and species extinction, ecosystem responses to climate change, the role of agroecology in sustainable systems, and the latest frontiers in eScience technologies.

ENVRI-Hub NEXT at BEeS 2026

7-10 July 2026 | Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The ENVRI-Hub NEXT team provided two training activities at BEeS 2026, focusing on the upgraded ENVRI-Hub, the links to slides are available below:

• ENVRI-Hub tools and VREs for researchers #1: an introduction.
  Trainers: Zhiming Zhao, Eleonora Parisi, Koen Greuell, Gabriel Pelouze | LifeWatch ERIC
  Description: Environmental and Earth sciences rely on diversity data from different infrastructures: from ocean temperatures to biodiversity records, from climate indicators to geological observations. This diversity, however, poses challenges for data science and AI practitioners: datasets use different metadata standards, come in varied formats, and are hard to access and link across research infrastructures. This training session will explain how the ENVRI-Hub, a software platform unifying multi research infrastructure in Environmental and Earth sciences, address these challenges through tools such as Knowledge Base (Search engine) and LLM-powered Environment Expert agents. It will also highlight the contribution from LifeWatch, such as analysing datasets through a Jupyter based Virtual Research Environment.
• ENVRI-Hub tools and VREs for researchers #2: hands-on practice.
  Trainer: Koen Greuell | LifeWatch ERIC
  Description: In this hands-on NaaVRE workshop, you’ll explore pre-built cloud workflows and tailor one to your research needs.
  Select a workflow, adjust its parameters, and enhance it by designing and implementing your own modifications in the source code.
  Run your updated workflow and share it with peers, gaining hands-on experience in collaborative and scalable research.
  This workshop requires some experience in scripting in R or Python.