LifeWatch ERIC Training Platform

Rules

1. The game will open on Friday, 22 May 2026 at 09:00 and close on 17:00 CEST. Check your timezone.
2. You have max 1 hour to complete the game.
3. Only teachers can log in and play: you are tutoring your students and facilitating their interaction with the serious game.
4. Each teacher can play only once with the same group of students. More than one teacher per school can play, but they must tutor different groups of students.
5. You must answer each question before moving on to the next one.
6. You have multiple attempts for each question but the number of available points decreases after each try.
7. The final score takes into account the total number of earned points and the completion time.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the Marine SABRES School Competition 2026, your students will be able to:

1. Describe the relationship between us and the ocean;
2. List rules or tools we can adopt to protect the ocean;
3. Discuss ideas to help people act better toward the ocean.

Who is invited to participate

Why participate

• Discover how strong the link between us and the ocean is; 
• Improve awareness and attitude towards the marine environment – to which we all belong! 
• Meet teachers and students from across Europe and learn from peers; 
• Find the support of a European network of researchers.

This School Competition is an informal and playful education activity designed to introduce your classroom to basic concepts of marine biology and coastal ecology.

A series of online quizzes for school students will be launched between 2024 and 2026 as part of the dissemination and engagement activities of the project Marine SABRES.

If you want know the general characteristics of the ecosystems and learn more on the biodiversity, play this Scientific game.

If you are a middle school student and want test your knowledge on the management and conservation of resources at the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, play here. This Scientific game has been created in collaboration with Castelporziano Presidential Estate, National Academy of Sciences.

Your travel in the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano starts here. If you want explore the artistic and cultural aspects of Castelporziano, traveling into its past and its history, play this Scientific game. This Scientific game has been created in collaboration with Castelporziano Presidential Estate, National Academy of Sciences.

Are you interested in the impacts about the Mediterranean Sea? Do you want contribute to its protection? Play this Scientific game.

Are you curious about the marine biodiversity and the resources of the marine ecosystems? Play here.

If you want learn more about the abiotic and biotic characteristics of the Sea, play here.

You are about to discover why a sustainable management of European wetlands matters for all of us. Ready? Play now.

To learn more about Earth Sciences and the hydrogeological risks, you can play this Scientific game.

If you are interested to protected areas and Earth observations visit this section devoted to ECOPOTENTIAL project. It focuses its activities on a targeted set of internationally recognised Protected Areas, blending Earth Observations from remote sensing and field measurements, data analysis and modelling of current and future ecosystem conditions and services. It include a Scientific game.

Background

Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) is a technique widely used in many fields of natural and biological sciences to infer the ecological requirements of species and to predict their geographic distributions (Elith & Leathwick, 2009). Species distribution models can be used to support conservation decision making (Guisan et al., 2013). Forecasting endangered species distribution under climatic change scenario is increasingly used in conservation biology (Muñoz et al., 2013), while forecast the spread of invasive species is receiving a growing interest in invasion biology (Verbruggen et al., 2013). The aim of SDMs is to infer the probability of occurrence of a taxon given a set of variables (climate, elevation, soil type, etc.) that are assumed to be related to the distribution and habitat preferences of the taxon under study. 

This resource is a technical guide aimed at providing the basic elements needed to build a Species Distribution Model. 

Specific knowledge of the topic is not mandatory. However, in order to have a correct understanding of the information contained in the tutorial, and even more for a proper interpretation of the output, some basics of statistics (e.g., notions of modelling like GLM, GAM, etc.) and a sound knowledge of the statistic environment of R is recommended.

Learning Objectives

It is expected that, with this tutorial, participants will be better positioned to:

1. Illustrate distribution model concepts and how it applies to ecology, evolutionary biology and conservative biology;

2. Discuss procedures to obtain free occurrence database and techniques for cleaning and validating occurrency data;

3. Examine algorithms for modelling species occurrence and tests for evaluating robustness of the analysis;

4. Assess validity and correctness of output interpretation;

5. Simulate all the steps needed to realize a species distribution model (SDM) of a species of choice.

Contents and Structure

Training Blocks:

1. Occurrence data;

2. The environmental variables;

3. Running the analysis;

4. The output interpretation and test of robustness;

5. Survey of available software.

Target Audience

The tutorial is aimed at both students and researchers, that have the need or the interest to acquire the basic knowledge on how to realize a distribution model.

Production

Background
The Autumn Data School is an 3-day training workshop designed and host in collaboration between LifeWatch, its Belgian, Greek and Italian National Nodes and EMODnet Biology. EMODnet provides access to data from a wide range of sources and pursues inclusion of new and historical data sets.

Contents and Structure

• Day 1: Policy, Scientific, and Technical context
• Day 2: Data Standardization and Data Quality

• Day 3: Data Rescue via Citizen Science Platforms

Learning Objectives
It is expected that, by the end of the workshop, participants will be better positioned to:

Target Audience
Marine biologists, ecologists, data stewards, data managers, citizen science practitioners.

The Summer School, now at its fifth edition, is organised by ENVRI-FAIR and LifeWatch ERIC and will take place in Lecce, Italy, from 10–15 July. It covers topics such as user interfaces, packaging of services, reusability and validation of services, and building and supporting networks through the lens of the ENVRI-Hub approach.

Background

This fourth edition of the ENVRI FAIR School represents another unmissable opportunity to learn about FAIRness in the framework of Research Infrastructures. After dealing with Data FAIRness and Data Management during previous editions, this edition of the school focuses on Services for FAIRness, from their design to their development and publication.

Learning Objectives

It is expected that, by the end of the course, participants will be better positioned to:

1. Examine approaches and methodologies to webservices for data

2. Map tools and their related characteristics

3. Illustrate potential security threats and related solutions

4. Design (step by step) data services 

5. Develop and publish a data service

To facilitate the use of the LifeWatch Belgium web services, several applications and tools were documented in use cases and tutorials.

The Belgian LifeWatch E-Lab online application allows users to standardize, analyze and visualize their data, making use of web services built on top of internal and external reference databases. A user can select several data services (taxonomic, geographic, thematic, etc.) and run them successively through a straightforward user interface. As explained in the user guide, the LifeWatch.be web services can be used in a concatenated way, i.e. the output of one web service is the input for the next web service. Establishing such workflows helps solving (complicated) biological questions, illustrated in this and other use cases.

To facilitate the use of the LifeWatch Belgium web services, several applications and tools were documented in use cases and tutorials.

The Belgian LifeWatch E-Lab online application allows users to standardize, analyze and visualize their data, making use of web services built on top of internal and external reference databases. A user can select several data services (taxonomic, geographic, thematic, etc.) and run them successively through a straightforward user interface. As explained in the user guide, the LifeWatch.be web services can be used in a concatenated way, i.e. the output of one web service is the input for the next web service. Establishing such workflows helps solving (complicated) biological questions, illustrated in this and other use cases.

Background

Phytoplankton plays an important role in aquatic ecosystems as it accounts for most of global primary production and affects the biogeochemical processes, trophic dynamics and biodiversity architecture. LifeWatch Italy, one of the ERIC's national nodes, designed the Phytoplankton Virtual Research Environment (Phyto VRE) to support researches on phytoplankton guilds and their relative structure, organization and ecological function. The Phyto VRE services, in fact, enable researchers to analyse and process phytoplankton data at a level of resolution from individual cells to whole guilds. In particular, the Atlas of Phytoplankton and the Atlas of Shapes provide harmonised data on taxonomy and morphological and demographic traits.

Learning Objectives

It is expected that, with this tutorial, participants will be better positioned to:

1. Illustrate how to access and navigate the two Atlas of the Phyto VRE;

2. Discuss the main characteristics of a phytoplankton species;

3. Examine the possible shapes of a phytoplankton species;

4. Present the computational models for surface area and volume of phytoplankton species.

Contents and Structure

Training Blocks:

1. Introduction to Phytoplankton Species and Shapes;

2. Atlas of Phytoplankton;

3. Atlas of Shapes;

4. Presentation of Computational Model service;

5. Overview of LifeWatch Italy Phytoplankton VRE services.

Target Audience

The resource is aimed at marine, transitional and freshwater scientists and students involved in phytoplankton identification, classification, morphological traits association and measurement.

Production

LifeWatch Italy

Background

The workflow on “Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)” is conceived to produce data files that can then be used to indirectly answer a large spectrum of ecological questions related to the monitoring of hard bottom communities of near coast environments, e.g., highlighting changes and trends in community composition. This workflow operates as a data chaining pipeline that uses data collected by a network of ARMS placed in the vicinity of marine stations and Long-term Ecological Research sites (LTER) to produce community data files that can be subsequently analysed elsewhere (e.g., in R) to check whether species detected in the samples are alien to the location. 

Learning Objectives

It is expected that, by the end of the course, participants will be better positioned to:

1. Examine the technical requirements of the workflow’s services;

2. Process the services included in the workflow;

3. Run the workflow successfully;

4. Identify and troubleshoot problems that may arise while running the workflow.

 

Contents and Structure

In this training the user will be guided through the use of the workflow steps and ICT services developed in the Tesseract Virtual Research Environment (VRE) of LifeWatch ERIC.

Contents:

1. Access and navigate the Tesseract VRE.

2. Step-by-step demonstration on how to run the workflow services (video resource);

3. Technical requirements of each service/step (PDF doc);

4. Link to additional information on the validation case, including an open knowledge map;

5. Scientific presentation of the case study (video resource);

 

Target Audience

This training is aimed at early career researchers and anyone interested in learning how to run the “Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)” workflow.

A tutorial to guide users on the use of LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue.

Two webinars on “Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users” organized in preparation for the ENVRI Community International Summer School 2022 "Road to a FAIR ENVRI-Hub: Designing and Developing Data Services for End Users”.

The webinars, aimed at IT architects, Research Infrastructure (RI) service developers and user support staff, and RI staff working on user interaction and community/network building, can also be taken as stand-alone sessions.

The Data liberation and Publishing tools course aims to tackle both sides of the publication process: 

1. the annotation, preservation and dissemination of data extracted from the literature by utilising the right pipelines and mechanisms;
   
2. the publication of prospective scientific literature and data in advanced ways to support easier and efficient (re)sharing and (re)use of biodiversity data contained in an academic publication. 

The course intends to showcase modern ways to complete the cycle of biodiversity data usage, including how to harvest, access, publish, preserve and cite scientific data and literature.

The Data liberation and Publishing tools course contains three modules:

1. Introduction: a brief overview of the current issues in biodiversity data publication and extraction; and an introduction of two key players addressing these issues: Plazi and Pensoft. 

2. Data liberation: a learning resource designed to inform about the benefits of data liberation tools, including the services provided by the Plazi workflow. This module is to also provide knowledge and practical skills necessary to contribute to the digitisation and standardisation of taxonomic literature. 

3. Publishing tools: a learning resource designed to inform about the benefits and features of the latest semantic technologies and formats in the context of biodiversity data, scientific publications and scholarly journals. This module is to also demonstrate how the scholarly publishing process can be streamlined, in order to assist researchers and scientific journals publish, share and preserve their biodiversity research in compliance with the FAIR data principles.

Both the Data liberation and the Publishing tools modules refer to two tools devised within the EU-funded project: Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL), and featured in the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH).

Description 

This course presents an introduction to the BKH. It presents the structure of the BKH, the FAIR Data Place section and its key role in the openness of the data.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the features and benefits of the BKH.
2. Navigate the BKH platform confidently.
3. Understand the transfer mechanisms and the workflow of biodiversity data.

A collection of online training resources on the topic of FAIRness relevant for BioDT. The collection includes: guidelines on Research Object Crate (RO-Crate), the main metadata format used within the project; online books covering many different aspects related to open science; and FAIR-IMPACT's Metrics for software and FAIR-IMPACT's Catalogue of Resources.

The Prototype Biodiversity Digital Twin (pDT) for Honey Bees is an advanced pDT tool that has been designed to assess the viability and productivity of honey bee colonies in various landscapes and under different management and climate-change scenarios. Using the BEEHAVE model, the pDT simulates foraging, population dynamics, and Varroa mite infestation of honey bee colonies.

The pDT interface, developed using R Shiny, offers a user-friendly platform where users can specify hive coordinates and modify model parameters and floral resource settings. Then the interface provides visual outputs such as the number of adult bees, honey production, and flight time. Users can simulate colony dynamics for specific locations and compare results with real-world data.

The honeybee prototype Digital Twin is primarily for beekeepers and researchers who want to model how different locations, beekeeping practices and floral resources will change honeybee vitality. We are still in the testing and calibration phase, but once this has been finished the tool can be used to assess the honeybee friendliness of landscapes and could be therefore a tool for land use decision making. 

In this tutorial you will:

• learn how the considered floral resources will affect honeybee vitality by choosing different locations for the colony in the landscape. The user can also change the flowering period of the different crop types and their nectar and pollen content.
  
• learn how decisions in the beekeeping (control of mites by arcaracides, drone brood removal, honey harvest) will affect the population dynamics by changing the respective parameters on the dashboard.

To use the tool no prior scientific knowledge is needed. Some jargon is however helpful in order to understand  the role of “mites” which are disease vectors for honey bees.

The Black Sea Accelerator provides a platform for participants to collaborate, learn, and grow their ventures by offering tailored training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources and funding. Whether they are looking to launch a new venture, scale an existing business, or develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges, the accelerator program equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to succeed in the blue economy sector and make a positive impact in the Black Sea region.

By the end of this training session, participants should be able to:

The Black Sea Accelerator provides a platform for participants to collaborate, learn, and grow their ventures by offering tailored training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources and funding. Whether they are looking to launch a new venture, scale an existing business, or develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges, the accelerator program equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to succeed in the blue economy sector and make a positive impact in the Black Sea region.

By the end of this training session, participants should be able to:

The Black Sea Accelerator provides a platform for participants to collaborate, learn, and grow their ventures by offering tailored training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources and funding. Whether they are looking to launch a new venture, scale an existing business, or develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges, the accelerator program equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to succeed in the blue economy sector and make a positive impact in the Black Sea region.

By the end of this training session, participants should be able to:

The Black Sea Accelerator provides a platform for participants to collaborate, learn, and grow their ventures by offering tailored training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources and funding. Whether they are looking to launch a new venture, scale an existing business, or develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges, the accelerator program equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to succeed in the blue economy sector and make a positive impact in the Black Sea region.

By the end of this training session, participants should be able to:

This training session was organised as part of the EU-funded SUBMERSE project, which explores sensing capabilities of existing submarine optical fiber networks for research applications.

Purpose of this training session

The training session introduces you to data recording, measurement, and analysis methods of State of Polarization (SoP) in optical networks. It will:

Target audience

Optical networks and telecommunications operators and vendors; researchers in earth sciences and geophysics.

Requirements

None or basic knowledge of SOP changes recording and analysis methods. Basic experience in analysis of data generated by sensing network.

Session outline

The OBIS manual covers the mobilisation of marine biodiversity datasets with special additional attention to abiotic conditions of the biodiversity data to align these with the data requirements of EMODnet.