As of September 2024, there are over 800 mid-market GCCs in India collectively employing more than 2.2 lakh professionals

Trivedi, C B; Stamps, B W; Lau, G E; Grasby, S E; Templeton, A S; Spear, J R. mSystems vol. 5, issue 4, e00504-20, 2020 p. 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00504-20
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The BWA report has observed that the area of blockchain solutions have emerged as the Web3 vertical with the largest concentration of companies operating within it. Presently, 79 firms have been...

SPIISEE is Showcasing its Partner Ecosystem Management Solutions at ChannelNEXT West.

Embedded Financial Services is the Future

Another group of companies to watch are those that focus on one particular vertical. They can build out capabilities unique to a particular industry and while they will not have broad data sets they can go very deep within a vertical. Shopify is a good example of this as they become the go to platform for ecommerce companies. They have functionality they call Shopify Manage which is billed as the mission control for your business, wherever you go available on desktop or mobile. They also have Shopify Capital for lending and Shopify Payments.


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As third-party risk continues to be a critical concern for enterprises, the need for effective risk management strategies has never been more pressing. We spoke with Bob Maley, CISO of third-party risk management specialist Black Kite, to get his insights into effective strategies for managing this challenge along with the nuanced risks and necessary tactics to secure enterprise environments against sophisticated threats. BN: How can organizations assess and manage risks associated with emerging technologies? BM: Organizations need a proactive approach that begins with detailed assessments to identify potential risks. These assessments should focus on the technology’s architecture, possible attack vectors,… [Continue Reading]

Elissa reminds us that the body of Christ is a living organism, and we remove pieces of it to the detriment of the whole.

Aim/Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to provide a cost-effective and artificial intelligence enabled security solution for IoT enabled healthcare ecosystem. It helps to implement, improve, and add new attributes to healthcare services. The paper aims to develop a method based on an artificial neural network technique to predict suspicious devices based on bandwidth usage. Background: COVID has made it mandatory to make medical services available online to every remote place. However, services in the healthcare ecosystem require fast, uninterrupted facilities while securing the data flowing through them. The solution in this paper addresses both the security and uninterrupted services issue. This paper proposes a neural network based solution to detect and disable suspicious devices without interrupting critical and life-saving services. Methodology: This paper is an advancement on our previous research, where we performed manual knowledge-based intrusion detection. In this research, all the experiments were executed in the healthcare domain. The mobility pattern of the devices was divided into six parts, and each one is assigned a dedicated slice. The security module regularly monitored all the clients connected to slices, and machine learning was used to detect and disable the problematic or suspicious devices. We have used MATLAB’s neural network to train the dataset and automatically detect and disable suspicious devices. The different network architectures and different training algorithms (Levenberg–Marquardt and Bayesian Framework) in MATLAB software have attempted to achieve more precise values with different properties. Five iterations of training were executed and compared to get the best result of R=99971. We configured the application to handle the four most applicable use cases. We also performed an experimental application simulation for the assessment and validation of predictions. Contribution: This paper provides a security solution for the IoT enabled healthcare system. The architectures discussed suggest an end-to-end solution on the sliced network. Efficient use of artificial neural networks detects and block suspicious devices. Moreover, the solution can be modified, configured and deployed in many other ecosystems like home automation. Findings: This simulation is a subset of the more extensive simulation previously performed on the sliced network to enhance its security. This paper trained the data using a neural network to make the application intelligent and robust. This enhancement helps detect suspicious devices and isolate them before any harm is caused on the network. The solution works both for an intrusion detection and prevention system by detecting and blocking them from using network resources. The result concludes that using multiple hidden layers and a non-linear transfer function, logsig improved the learning and results. Recommendations for Practitioners: Everything from offices, schools, colleges, and e-consultation is currently happening remotely. It has caused extensive pressure on the network where the data flowing through it has increased multifold. Therefore, it becomes our joint responsibility to provide a cost-effective and sustainable security solution for IoT enabled healthcare services. Practitioners can efficiently use this affordable solution compared to the expensive security options available in the commercial market and deploy it over a sliced network. The solution can be implemented by NGOs and federal governments to provide secure and affordable healthcare monitoring services to patients in remote locations. Recommendation for Researchers: Research can take this solution to the next level by integrating artificial intelligence into all the modules. They can augment this solution by making it compatible with the federal government’s data privacy laws. Authentication and encryption modules can be integrated to enhance it further. Impact on Society: COVID has given massive exposure to the healthcare sector since last year. With everything online, data security and privacy is the next most significant concern. This research can be of great support to those working for the security of health care services. This paper provides “Security as a Solution”, which can enhance the security of an otherwise less secure ecosystem. The healthcare use cases discussed in this paper address the most common security issues in the IoT enabled healthcare ecosystem. Future Research: We can enhance this application by including data privacy modules like authentication and authorisation, data encryption and help to abide by the federal privacy laws. In addition, machine learning and artificial intelligence can be extended to other modules of this application. Moreover, this experiment can be easily applicable to many other domains like e-homes, e-offices and many others. For example, e-homes can have devices like kitchen equipment, rooms, dining, cars, bicycles, and smartwatches. Therefore, one can use this application to monitor these devices and detect any suspicious activity.

Aim/Purpose: 5G and IoT are two path-breaking technologies, and they are like wall and climbers, where IoT as a climber is growing tremendously, taking the support of 5G as a wall. The main challenge that emerges here is to secure the ecosystem created by the collaboration of 5G and IoT, which consists of a network, users, endpoints, devices, and data. Other than underlying and hereditary security issues, they bring many Zero-day vulnerabilities, which always pose a risk. This paper proposes a security solution using network slicing, where each slice serves customers with different problems. Background: 5G and IoT are a combination of technology that will enhance the user experience and add many security issues to existing ones like DDoS, DoS. This paper aims to solve some of these problems by using network slicing and implementing an Intrusion Detection System to identify and isolate the compromised resources. Methodology: This paper proposes a 5G-IoT architecture using network slicing. Research here is an advancement to our previous implementation, a Python-based software divided into five different modules. This paper’s amplification includes induction of security using pattern matching intrusion detection methods and conducting tests in five different scenarios, with 1000 up to 5000 devices in different security modes. This enhancement in security helps differentiate and isolate attacks on IoT endpoints, base stations, and slices. Contribution: Network slicing is a known security technique; we have used it as a platform and developed a solution to host IoT devices with peculiar requirements and enhance their security by identifying intruders. This paper gives a different solution for implementing security while using slicing technology. Findings: The study entails and simulates how the IoT ecosystem can be variedly deployed on 5G networks using network slicing for different types of IoT devices and users. Simulation done in this research proves that the suggested architecture can be successfully implemented on IoT users with peculiar requirements in a network slicing environment. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can implement this solution in any live or production IoT environment to enhance security. This solution helps them get a cost-effective method for deploying IoT devices on a 5G network, which would otherwise have been an expensive technology to implement. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can enhance the simulations by amplifying the different types of IoT devices on varied hardware. They can even perform the simulation on a real network to unearth the actual impact. Impact on Society: This research provides an affordable and modest solution for securing the IoT ecosystem on a 5G network using network slicing technology, which will eventually benefit society as an end-user. This research can be of great assistance to all those working towards implementing security in IoT ecosystems. Future Research: All the configuration and slicing resources allocation done in this research was performed manually; it can be automated to improve accuracy and results. Our future direction will include machine learning techniques to make this application and intrusion detection more intelligent and advanced. This simulation can be combined and performed with smart network devices to obtain more varied results. A proof-of-concept system can be implemented on a real 5G network to amplify the concept further.

The emergence of service ecosystems can accelerate the industrial renewal required because of urgent global challenges. However, existing research has not sufficiently grasped the social dynamics of coevolution in ecosystems that enhance industrial renewal. This study aimed to advance ecosystem research through a practice lens and to present the key characteristics of industrial service ecosystem practice involved in industrial renewal. Consequently, its three characteristics - <i>accomplishment</i>, <i>attractiveness</i> and <i>actionability</i> - were configured based on an abductive study derived from the ecosystem literature, three practice-oriented approaches to learning, and two case ecosystem examinations. These features created the logic for resource integration and enhanced ecosystems to evolve as units, thus exceeding the actors' independent avenues of renewal. The findings of this study provided a deeper understanding of the coevolution in ecosystems needed to accelerate industrial renewal as well as a novel conceptualisation of an <i>ecosystem-as-practice</i> for further studies.

Aim/Purpose: In this paper we propose an ecosystem for translational learning that combines core learning principles with a multilevel construct that embraces the tenets of translational research, namely, teaming, translating, and implementing. The goal of the paper is to argue that knowledge of learning sciences is essential at the individual, team, and organizational levels in the translational science enterprise. Background: The two decades that we can now call the translational era of health and medicine have not been without challenges. Many inroads have been made in navigating how scientific teaming, translating knowledge across the health spectrum, and implementing change to our health systems, policies, and interventions can serve our changing global environment. These changes to the traditional health science enterprise require new ways of understanding knowledge, forging relationships, and managing this new tradition of science. Competency requirements that have become important to the enterprise are dependent on a deep understanding about how people learn as individuals, in teams, and within organizations and systems. Methodology: An individual, team, and organizational conceptual framework for learning in translational ecosystems is developed drawing on the learning science literature, a synthesis of 9 key learning principles and integrated with core competencies for translational science. Contribution: The translational learning ecosystem is a means by which to understand how translational science competencies can be reinforced by core learning principles as teaming, translating, and implementation intersect as part of the translational science enterprise. Findings: This paper connects learning science to tailored principles in a simplified way so that those working translational science with less knowledge of theories of learning and pedagogy may be able to access it in a clear and concise way. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper provides a framework for researchers who engage in the education of translational scientists as well as those who are charged with training new scientists in an emerging field critical to health and medicine. Future Research: The translational ecosystem described can serve to expand how teaching and learning impact scientific advances. In addition, it serves as a means in which to understand the impact of learning on micro, meso, and macro levels.

Aim/Purpose: Developing Digital Platform Ecosystems (DPE) to transform conventional Knowledge Management Systems (KM/KMS) scenarios promises significant benefits for individuals, institutions, as well as emerging knowledge economies. Background: The academic entrepreneurship project presented is aiming for such a KMS-DPE configuration. Having consolidated this author’s own and external re-search findings, realization is currently commencing with a start-up in a business incubator. Methodology: Design science research applying mixed one-sample case study and illustrative scenario approach focusing on conceptual analysis and entrepreneurship. Contribution: Although (academic) entrepreneurship is a young research area with recently growing interest, publications focusing on this transitional stage between maturing research and projected commercial viability of digital technologies are rare. Findings: A roadmap looking beyond the immediate early-start-up perspective is out-lined by integrating recent development-stage-related DPE-research and by addressing stakeholders diverse informing needs essential for system realization. Recommendations for Practitioners and Researchers: As this transdisciplinary perspective combines KM, informing, design science, and entrepreneurial research spaces, it may assist other researchers and practitioners facing similar circumstances and/or start-up opportunities. Impact on Society: The article advances the understanding of how DPE communities may serve members with highly diverse skills and ambitions better to gainfully utilize the platform’s resources and generative potential in their personal and local settings. Future Research: As the entrepreneurial agenda will complement (not substitute) the academic research, research priorities have been highlighted aligned to three future stages.

Basics of the Adtech Ecosystem This guide delves into the intricacies of the adtech ecosystem, an elaborate mesh of platforms and technologies designed to facilitate and enhance the purchase and sale of digital advertising. Within this system, crucial elements such as ad servers, DSPs (Demand Side Platforms), SSPs (Supply Side Platforms), and ad [...]

In this guest post Martin Sharman opens up a rich area of debate by arguing that as a policy concept, ecosystem services puts human wants first and foremost and undermines moral-aesthetic value arguments for conservation that are widely held in society. Martin was the policy offer responsible for biodiversity and ecosystems in the European Commission’s DG Research & Innovation up until his retirement last November. During his career he made an enormous contribution to biodiversity research and policy, including the initiation of the BioFresh project. The opinions expressed in this post are, of course, his own and are not intended to represent a position of either the Commission or BioFresh.

A "resource" is something that is useful to someone. A "natural resource" is something in the natural environment that a human can use to satisfy want or increase wellbeing.

To adopt this vocabulary is to adopt a forthright utilitarian view of the natural environment, and implicitly to accept that human benefit is the only good. Not only is human benefit the only good, but it is quantifiable – for if not, then we can never agree on what constitutes a resource, or who has the greater right to it. Thus someone who speaks of natural resources accepts, again implicitly, that happiness and wellbeing can be quantified. The vocabulary also requires that this quantified human benefit remains, if not constant, then comparable over cultures and generations.

More than this: the wellbeing of the "resource" is insignificant. It is only by setting concern for the wellbeing of the resource to zero that one can regard it as merely something to satisfy human want. Human benefit is the only good. This is the First Commandment; in the limpid words of the King James version of the bible, thou shalt have no other gods before me.

In this observation lies much of the moral argument against the concept of ecosystem services: just as oranges are not the only fruit, so humans are not the only species.

The concept of ecosystem services is one thing; the premise of its proponents is another. It is, in short, that conservation based on intrinsic value of biodiversity has failed to stop the loss of species, ecosystems, and the complex web of interactions between them. Since an ethical argument has failed, then we should try self-interest. By demonstrating that human wellbeing is increased by the services rendered by ecosystems, we can motivate people to protect the source of the service – biodiversity.

We know that conservation is not working because we continue to lose biodiversity. Oh yeah? This is the equivalent of me deciding that my accelerator is not working because my car is losing speed. Why is such a daft non-sequitur accepted by otherwise intelligent people? You immediately thought of many reasons my car might be losing speed – I have the brakes on, I’m going up a hill, I’ve run out of fuel, I’ve run into sand, I’ve hit an oncoming truck. The obvious reason that we are losing biodiversity is the memento mori that stares at us from our looking glass – biodiversity loss is the inevitable result of our debt-based economic system and our swelling population’s unsustainable demands on nature. We all know that. Why do we mutely accept the dangerously diversionary nonsense that "biodiversity is being lost because conservation is not working"?

Ecosystem services takes the utilitarian logic of natural resources one important step further. A "service" by definition benefits humans. If we are to protect services only if they benefit humans, then what happens to the useless ecosystems? Are they simply to be cemented over?

I recently heard a discussion in which one person said "most people are useless", meaning that they are surplus to requirement. The outrage that this provoked was spearheaded by someone saying that you can never prove that anyone is useless, because you can never know enough about their contribution to their social fabric. So does this mean that you can never show that an ecosystem is useless? If so that leaves the ecosystem services argument saying that because some ecosystems benefit humans, we have to protect every ecosystem.

Which may be the right answer, but why reach it by such objectionable means?

For those of us with a reverence of nature, the ecosystem services rhetoric and mindset are abhorrent, being fundamentally immoral and unethical. They take the most ecologically damaging invasive species in the history of life, and place it above all other species on Earth. They cast all other – voiceless – species in the role of consumables. This mindset might have worked for Homo habilis. It will not work for Homo sapiens.

Martin Sharman  for the BioFresh Blog: http://biofreshblog.com/2013/07/03/perspective-martin-sharman-on-ethics-and-the-ecosystem-services-paradigm/

The Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France), in its Research Group "Macroecology and Biogeography of Global Change (MacroBio)" has a 36-months PhD position open for applications. The position is funded by the European Commission through the FP7 Research Project OPERAs and affiliated to the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS).

The topic is the broad-scale spatial mapping and quantification of ecosystem service trade-offs following from management of agro-ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin. The context of the research includes the environment (climate, land use) as well as trends in societal demands for services. Based on scientific literature, spatial databases and the outputs from a process-based ecosystem model, the candidate will analyze, quantify and map ecosystem service trade-offs. Service valuation and indicator representation methods will be developed with the IMBE team. The approach is pan-Mediterranean: a significant part of the work will therefore consist of helping to reduce gaps in data and knowledge for the sum of countries around the Mediterranean basin. 

The research group works in close interaction with international programs such as Future Earth (through its project ecoSERVICES) and science-policy interfaces such as IPBES.

The successful candidate will have completed a Masters degree (or equivalent) in one of the environmental sciences, have experience in the handling of spatial data from databases, literature and models, have knowledge of existing concepts of ecosystem services, and be able to place results in the context of the Mediterranean basin (this includes the European, as well as North African and Eastern countries). The working language is English, appropriate skills in French or another of the Mediterranean languages will be an advantage.

The position will be filled when a suitable candidate has been identified. To apply for this position, please send a letter of application, demonstrating your ability to understand the task, and your CV as soon as possible, but before the 31st of January 2013, by e-mail to Ms. Gabriela Boéri (Gabriela.Boeri@imbe.fr). For any questions about the task, working conditions, or the OPERAs project, please contact Professor Wolfgang Cramer (Wolfgang.Cramer@imbe.fr).

The 9th GEO European Projects Workshop took place on 15 and 16 June 2015, in Copenhagen, Denmark. A special session dedicated to biodiversity and ecosystems was held as a part of the meeting, where EU BON and other topic relevant projects were presented.

The session was started by Gary Geller with an introduction and overview. Particularly the importance of the long-term sustainability of the projects and the linkages to the overall aims of GEO were stressed, as well as the opportunity of the session to find further synergies among the GEO-related projects.

Participants at the biodiversity and ecosystems sessions during the 9th GEO European Projects Workshop; Credit: Florian Wetzel

EU BON was presented at the meeting by the project coordinator Christoph Häuser, who outlined the core elements for an integrated biodiversity information system. There is the challenge to provide a sound framework to overcome the fragmentation of available biodiversity information to obtain better information for political decision making.  EU BON with its 31 partners tackles this challenge and its main objective is to serve as a European contribution to GEO BON.

Other projects presented during the session were EU H2020 projects ECOPOTENTIAL and GLOBIS‑B, both already in the list of associated partners of EU BON.  The third H2020 project presented here was SWOS, a Satellite-based Wetland Observation Service.

One of the major outcomes of the session was the agreement that further follow-ups of the discussions are needed and that the projects should have further exchange among each other.

A new EU BON acknowledging special issue "Earth Observation for Ecosystems Monitoring in Space and Time: A Special Issue in Remote Sensing" published in the open access journal Remote Sensing provides a collection of  important researchers in the field, as well as the most challenging aspects of the application of remote sensing to study ecosystems. 

The 2016 GEO BON Open Science Conference: "Biodiversity and ecosystem Services Monitoring for the 2020 Targets and beyond. Building on observations for user needs" will take place from 4 to 9 July 2016 in Leipzig, Germany. 

Biodiversity Science is facing enormous challenges as the pressures upon the earth’s biotic systems are rapidly intensifying and we are unlikely to reach the CBD 2020 Aichi Targets. But how far or close are we to reach the targets? The GEO BON Open Science Conference on "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Monitoring for the 2020 Targets and beyond" will assess this question. The conference is open to the wide scientific public and is sponsored and co-organized by iDiv, UFZ, SASCAL (others to come).

For more information please visit: http://conf2016.geobon.org

A new paper "Combining internal and external motivations in multi-actor governance arrangements for biodiversity and ecosystem services" published in the journal Environmental Science & Policy looks at ways to motivate actions for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. The paper is a result of the EU FP7 funded project BIOMOT.

Abstract: 

This paper analyses the possibility of building a mutually supportive dynamics between internally and externally motivated behaviour for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. To this purpose a face to face survey amongst 169 key actors of 34 highly successful and prominent biodiversity arrangements in seven EU countries was conducted. The main finding of the paper is the feasibility of combining inherently intrinsically motivated behaviours (providing enjoyment, pleasure from experimentation and learning, aesthetic satisfaction) and internalized extrinsic motivations (related to the identification with the collective goals of conservation policy) through a common set of governance features. Successful initiatives that combine internal and external motivations share the following features: inclusive decision making processes, a broad monitoring by "peers" beyond the core staff of the initiatives, and a context that is supportive for the building of autonomous actor competences. These findings are in line with the psycho-sociological theory of motivation, which shows the importance of a psycho-social context leading to a subjective perception of autonomy and a sense of competence of the actors.

Original Source: 

Tom Dedeurwaerdere, Jeroen Admiraal, Almut Beringer, Flavia Bonaiuto, Lavinia Cicero, Paula Fernandez-Wulff, Janneke Hagens, Juha Hiedanpää, Paul Knights, Erica Molinario, Paolo Melindi-Ghidi, Florin Popa, Urban Šilc, Nathalie Soethe, Tiina Soininen, Jose Luis Vivero, Combining internal and external motivations in multi-actor governance arrangements for biodiversity and ecosystem services, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 58, April 2016, Pages 1-10, ISSN 1462-9011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.12.003

A new research paper Linking Earth Observation and taxonomic, structural and functional biodiversity: Local to ecosystem perspectives published in the journal Ecological Indicators looks at the ways in which earth observation (EO) techniques may provide a solution to overcome shortcomings in biodiversity monitoring by measuring entities of interest at different spatial and temporal scales. 

Abstract: 

Impacts of human civilization on ecosystems threaten global biodiversity. In a changing environment, traditional in situ approaches to biodiversity monitoring have made significant steps forward to quantify and evaluate BD at many scales but still, these methods are limited to comparatively small areas. Earth observation (EO) techniques may provide a solution to overcome this shortcoming by measuring entities of interest at different spatial and temporal scales.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the role of EO to detect, describe, explain, predict and assess biodiversity. Here, we focus on three main aspects related to biodiversity taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and structural diversity, which integrate different levels of organization molecular, genetic, individual, species, populations, communities, biomes, ecosystems and landscapes. In particular, we discuss the recording of taxonomic elements of biodiversity through the identification of animal and plant species. We highlight the importance of the spectral traits (ST) and spectral trait variations (STV) concept for EO-based biodiversity research.

Furthermore we provide examples of spectral traits/spectral trait variations used in EO applications for quantifying taxonomic diversity, functional diversity andstructural diversity. We discuss the use of EO to monitor biodiversity and habitat quality using differ-ent remote-sensing techniques. Finally, we suggest specifically important steps for a better integrationof EO in biodiversity research.EO methods represent an affordable, repeatable and comparable method for measuring, describing,explaining and modelling taxonomic, functional and structural diversity. Upcoming sensor developmentswill provide opportunities to quantify spectral traits, currently not detectable with EO, and will surelyhelp to describe biodiversity in more detail. Therefore, new concepts are needed to tightly integrate EOsensor networks with the identification of biodiversity. This will mean taking completely new directionsin the future to link complex, large data, different approaches and models.

Original reseach:

A. Lausch, L. Bannehr, M. Beckmann, C. Boehm, H. Feilhauer, J.M. Hacker, M. Heurich, A. Jung, R. Klenke, C. Neumann, M. Pause, D. Rocchini, M.E. Schaepman, S. Schmidtlein, K. Schulz, P. Selsam, J. Settele, A.K. Skidmore, A.F. Cord, Linking Earth Observation and taxonomic, structural and functional biodiversity: Local to ecosystem perspectives, Ecological Indicators, Volume 70, November 2016, Pages 317-339, ISSN 1470-160X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.06.022

The 11th European Projects GEO Workshop took place between 19-21 June 2017, in Helsinki, Finland, bringing together European stakeholders interested in and actively contributing to the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS).

Alongside the plenary (see presentations here), the conference featured 20 sessions looking at various aspects GEOSS, its objectives and their implementation.

Among those EU BON took part in a dedicated session titled ‘How Ecosystem and Biodiversity data and knowledge can support the GEO objectives’, alongside fellow projects and initiatives, and associated partners ECOPOTENTIAL, LTER-Europe, GLOBIS-B, EKLIPSE and ENEON.

Credit: F. Wetzel

The session aimed to inform about recent developments of relevant projects that focus on Ecosystems and Biodiversity and also outline how the generated data and knowledge can support the GEO objectives and inform relevant policies on a European and global scale.  

.@ft_wetzel explaining the @EUBON1 approach to mobilising linked and standardised data #EGW2017 #citizenscience #harmonisation #biodiversity pic.twitter.com/jJJ5jADAzG

— Scent (@SCENT_EU) June 20, 2017

EU BON, as a now completed project, opened the session by presenting its major products in particular the European Biodiversity Portal and how current and future projects can build on the outcomes achieved.

Overall, the session gave the opportunity to learn about the different approaches of selected EU-projects that address the mobilization, integration and analysis of biodiversity and ecosystem data, their current achievements and existing barriers. Here are some of the Key Messages that emerged from the session: 

• For biodiversity and ecosystem approaches, European level efforts are needed to achieve comprehensive data coverage and full open access, especially for in situ data integration.
• Existing European-level data portals and information platforms need to be sustained and considered as integration points for national and local data hubs. 
• Systematic approaches for biodiversity are needed, which means linking biotic and abiotic data and improving harmonization efforts for the whole data cycle/ workflows from data collection, analysis and dissemination for different disciplines (SBAs). 
• Essential (Biodiversity) Variables (EBVs) are a key concept / framework especially for monitoring / long-term observations that should be applied for all available biodiversity/ecosystem data fields.
• Use examples from existing projects and networks as successful blueprints for bottom-up/user-driven approaches in GEOSS that relate to knowledge and user needs at the local scale. 

The Research Infrastructures Unit of DG RTD and the infrastructure project LifeWatch invites you to a 1 and ½ day workshop : "Towards a Roadmap for Research Infrastructures on Biodiversity and Ecosystem research in Europe". The workshop will take place Brussels on 19 and 20 March 2013.
The overall objective of this workshop is to develop synergies between ESFRI research infrastructures (RI), existing research infrastructures implemented as Integrating Activities (IA), Integrated Projects (IP) and Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) which are relevant to Biodiversity and Ecosystem research.
The following topics will be discussed:
1. Synergy between the biodiversity components of different initiatives, also in view of the supporting role of the European research infrastructures in this area.
2. A strategy for the development of biodiversity research infrastructures in the next ten years in view of emerging scientific and technical challenges.

Further information: EuroMarine

The FP7 projects BioFresh and WaterDiss2.0 are pleased to announce the E-seminar "Data Exchange for Biodiversity Conservation in Freshwater Ecosystems: Introducing the BioFresh Platform and Data Portal". The E-seminar will take place on Thursday, November 28 from 14:00 to 15:00 CET.

It will be hosted on the seminar website (http://waterdiss.eu/eseminar-biofresh) where a link will be available for it.

The E-seminar will introduce the audience to the usage of the BioFresh Platform and Data Portal, in order to ensure a better understanding of the different components. Aaike De Wever, Science Officer of BioFresh, will explain which data and information are integrated and for which contributions BioFresh is looking. Participants are encouraged to join in for a live discussion via "Citrix go to Webinar".

If you want to participate in the e-seminar, you only need to send an email to evelyn.lukat@ecologic.eu. You will receive further information via mail. If you decide on participating later, you can also simply join the seminar by following the link provided on November 28^th on this website.

A few important notes:

• The e-seminar will be conducted in English
• The video and the questions asked during the session will be available on the websites of the BioFresh data portal and this website.

Technical details on the E-seminar:

• When clicking on the link, the application Citrix Go To Webinar will be downloaded. Nothing will be installed on your computer. However, please make sure that your computer is able to run java applications.
• Please make sure that the sound system on your computer works. If your sound system does not work properly, you can also dial in via phone. Please check the dial-in number for your country on this website by November 28^th.

On the 1st of April, between 9:30 and 16:30, the BiodiversityKnowledge project organises a conference where outcomes will be presented and widely discussed with policy makers, science and other stakeholders at the European parliament in Brussels. As final result, BiodiversityKnowledge will present a stakeholder’s document outlining a recommended design on how such a Network of Knowledge could operate and produce added value.

EU BON will be also presented at the confernce as one of the knowledge providers of the Network of Knowledge.

To counteract biodiversity loss, efforts have considerably increased over the past years to strengthen the science-policy-society interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services. There is indeed an active landscape of projects, institutions, organisations and individuals in Europe involved in this interface, all aiming to improve the knowledge flow so that decisions at different policy levels (from European, to national and local levels) are based on the best available knowledge.

With the 7th Environmental Action Programme and the start of Horizon2020 and its focus on innovative solutions for society, the need for more concerted activities in this context become even more important.

In this context, BiodiversityKnowledge (FP7 KNEU), an EU-funded coordination action has been set up to help to map, mobilise and organise this landscape focusing on the knowledge holders’ community. For this the project has been developing and testing a prototype Network of Knowledge since 2011 with more than 300 active participations of representatives of the biodiversity and ecosystems services knowledge community. Stakeholders involved ranged from practitioners and researchers to policy-makers.

Please find the conference agenda attached below.

The Integrated Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Project will convene an Open Science Conference from 23-27 June 2014 in Bergen, Norway, with the goals of:

• highlighting research results from the IMBER project and activities,
• promoting integrated syntheses of IMBER-relevant research, and
• developing a new global research agenda for marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems in the Anthropocene.

The list of contributed sessions and workshops is available here.

The Call for Abstracts is open!  Deadline for abstract submission: 31 January 2014. Contributions are welcome from all marine research communities.

The conference covers scenarios and modelling applications in marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems, across all relevant disciplines of natural and social sciences. It is open to scientists and experts working in the field, policy makers and practioners. The conference focuses on: (i) Exploring recent advances in modelling human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, (ii) Addressing the use of scenarios and models for decision support, (iii) Mobilising observations of biodiversity and ecosystem services for model development and testing, (iv) Capacity building for developing scenarios and models and for their use in decision making, (v) Horizon scanning and addressing gaps in knowledge.

More information available on the conference website.

The European Ecosystem Services 2016 conference will take place from 19 to 23 September 2016 in Antwerp, Belgium. The theme 'Helping nature to help us' focuses on the important role that healthy ecosystems play in supporting human well-being and the protection of nature.

This conference will be the biggest European event in 2016 that links science, policy and practice on ecosystem services and natural capital. It will have a strong focus on practice and implementation.

The conference programme offers an attractive mix of:

• keynote presentations from policy, practice and science;
• a networking day where businesses, practitioners, policymakers and researchers meet and showcase their work;
• interactive sessions to demonstrate working examples of ecosystem services and natural capital;
• field excursions to see ecosystem services in action; and
• scientific sessions.

Key dates:

Registration opens on 2 May 2016.

Call for abstracts - 1 Apr - 15 May 2016.

To register and find out more about teh event, please visit the official website.

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