LifeWatch ERIC BEeS 2025: Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference

LifeWatch ERIC BEeS 2025: Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference

Heraklion, Greece, 30 June – 03 July 2025

The BEeS (Biodiversity and Ecosystem eScience) Conference 2025 will gather researchers, policymakers, and experts to tackle the Triple Planetary Crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution) through eScience and European Research Infrastructures (RIs).


This year’s conference will explore synergies between LifeWatch ERIC services and emerging technologies to drive innovation for a sustainable future. The program features plenary sessions, thematic services, research presentations, and hands-on demonstrations, highlighting the crucial role of technology, data, and collaboration in addressing global environmental challenges.


Participants will engage in discussions on biological diversity and conservation, ecological responses to climate change, biogeography, taxonomy, biodiversity monitoring, and habitat mapping, with the possibility to submit an abstract by 15 April.  The event will also include interactive booth activities, poster presentations, and training sessions, offering insights into Virtual Research Environments (VREs), Virtual Laboratories (vLabs), and other digital tools.

Target audience
The conference welcomes researchers in biodiversity, ecosystems, and eScience, with a special focus on early-career scientists, including PhD and Master’s students. The BEeS 2025 Conference will be hosted by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology, and Aquaculture (IMBBC), in Heraklion, Greece, from June 30 to July 3, 2025.

For any detail on the abstract submission (deadline on April 15 2025), logistics, registration and preliminary programme, visit: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2025/ 

 

LifeWatch Slovenia at BES Annual Meeting in Liverpool, December 10-13, 2024

LifeWatch Slovenia at BES Annual Meeting in Liverpool, December 10-13, 2024

From 10 to 13 December 2024, over 1500 ecologists gathered in Liverpool for Europe’s largest conference dedicated to ecology: British Ecological Society Annual Meeting.

The event held particular relevance for LifeWatch ERIC, thanks to a rich programme of Thematic sessions, addressing the biodiversity crisis, nature restoration policies and practices, novels tools and technologies to tackle current challenges, and much more.

LifeWatch Slovenia consortium was represented by our colleague, Dr. Andreja Ramšak from the National Institute of Biology, Marine Biology Station Piran, presenting the lecture: “Towards automated biodiversity monitoring -a set-up of Biodiversity Observatory Automation (Thematic Topic under LifeWatch-ERIC)” in co-authorship with colleagues from the consortium: Dr. Cene Fišer (University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Dr. Magdalena Năpăruş-Aljančič and Dr. Tanja Pipan (Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU), Dr. Nataša Pipenbaher (University of Maribor, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics), and Dr. Urša Vilhar (Slovenian Forestry Institute, Department for Forest Ecology).

This annual meeting also brought together one of the most relevant scientific communities for LifeWatch ERIC’s mission.

5th International SOS Proteus Conference, December 7-8, 2024, Kranj, Slovenia

5th International SOS Proteus Conference, December 7-8, 2024, Kranj, Slovenia

Upon the 30th anniversary of the taxonomic description of black proteus (Proteus anguinus parkelj), and 38 years since its discovery by Prof. Andrej Mihevc (1952–2024), Tular Cave Laboratory, in partnership with City of Kranj and Tourism and Culture Organisation Kranj, was organizing the 5th International conference “SOS Proteus” – PROTEUS AND ITS KARST GROUNDWATER HABITAT: RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA TO ASSESS ITS CONSERVATION STATUS

83 participants from 14 countries (Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Romania, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Kingdom and USA) presented 33 studies on the latest trends, methods and findings about this endangered species at the 5th International SOS Proteus Conference over two days. The meeting of researchers and conservationists working on proteus is organized every two years by our Tular Cave Laboratory (member of LifeWatch Slovenia consortium), one of only two such laboratories in the world, which has been operating in Kranj since 1960.

The SOS Proteus is a biennial meeting where scientists, researchers and conservationists share their knowledge and encourage multidisciplinary international scientific cooperation in the field of proteus research and conservation, as well as the involvement of the public and local communities in the preservation of healthy drinking water resources. The conference was supported by the City of Kranj, the Kranj Tourism and Culture Board and the Kranj Water and Utility Company, and sponsored by the companies PILEUS, environmental solutions and CULMIUM, development of advanced technologies.