The German working group on vegetation databases is dedicated to building, maintaining, linking and analysing electronic archives of vegetation plot data and provides the national repository "VegetWeb", hosted by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). The 12th workshop will be hosted by the new German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, Germany. The central mission of iDiv is to promote theory-driven experiments and synthesis as well as data-driven theory. The concept of iDiv encompasses the detection of biodiversity, understanding its emergence, exploring its consequences for ecosystem functions and services, and developing strategies to safeguard biodiversity under global change. In this context, the combined synthesis of species abundance and distribution data together with information on species characteristics is seen as a high potential to advance our understanding of community assembly and plant diversity patterns. For this reason, important databases have already become part of iDiv's data research platforms, such as the German Vegetation Reference Database (GVRD), the plant trait databases TRY and BIOLFLOR and the Chorology Database Halle (CDH) on plant distribution data. In this workshop, we seek to explore the potentials of such databases for future research, with a specific focus on vegetation databases.
Further Information: http://www.botanik.uni-greifswald.de/idiv_meeting_2013.html

The annual meeting of the European GBIF Nodes will be organised by GBIF Finland in Joensuu 6-8 March 2013.
The meeting is by invitation only, and available for staff of the GBIF Members in Europe. In addition, any EU-funded biodiversity research projects are welcome to attend as observers. 
Event web page: European GBIF Nodes Meeting 2013

In 2013, Doñana Biological Reserve will host the first meeting of WP5 EU BON testing and validation of concepts, tools, and services, focusing on the organization and planning of the forthcoming WP5 tasks. The meeting will take place in Palacio de Doñana, Huelva, Spain, from 2 to 4 April 2013.
The aim of the meeting is to bring together the experts in charge of the implementation of the WP5 tasks with the people responsible for the data architecture (WP2), the tools developers (WP3, 4) and the policy and dialogue responsible partners (WP6, 7, 8). The meeting aims at providing a precise definition of the responsibilities of the partners involved and discussing the organization of the work process.

Organizers: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ & Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries - IGB
Place: Schloß Machern, Leipzig, Germany
Event web page: BioFresh Annual Meeting 2013

The OpenUp! meeting will be held in the new building of the National Museum in Prague  from April 24^th through 26^th, 2013. The second day (April 25^th) of the meeting is open for everyone, whereas the first and last days are for project participants and/or Steering Committee with officials from the EC only.

For more information please visit OpenUp! Meeting website - http://www.conferencepartners.cz/openup/index.htm

Pro-iBiosphere meeting 3 will be held from 20 to 24 May 2013 in Berlin. It will consist of three workshops on: 1) Coordination and routes for cooperation across organizations, projects and e-infrastructures 2) Measuring and constraining the costs of delivering services 3) Stakeholder requirements Second Management committee meeting and Advisory Board meetings will be held from 23-24 of May 2013. More information can be found at: http://wiki.pro-ibiosphere.eu/wiki/Workshops_Berlin,_May_2013

Тhe first meeting of the Freshwater Steering Group to be held in Uppsala, Sweden, on 10–12 June, 2013. The meeting is kindly supported by the Swedish EPA.

Please register for the workshop by sending an e-mail to Willem.Goedkoop@slu.se no later than 13 May.

The iEvoBio Meeting, 2013, will take place in Snowbird, Utah between June 25-26, in conjunction with Evolution 2013. It aims to bring together biologists working in evolution, systematics and biodiversity, with software developers, and mathematicians.
The keynote speakers for iEvoBio 2013 will be Dr. Heather Piwowar and Dr. Holly Bik.
Submissions for participation in the conference are now open. There are three ways to participate:
- Lightning Talk: present for 5 min on a method, idea, or software product about bioinformatics.
- Software Bazaar: Demo your open-source software product.
- Birds of a Feather: Suggest or participate in an informal group of folks with a common interest. Suggestions will be considered both before and during the meeting.

Find out the whole Program here.
More details about registration can be found here.

In 2013, the University of Potsdam will host the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The meeting (www.gfoe-2013.de) will take place from September 9 to 13, 2013 in Potsdam, Germany.

The guiding theme of the 43rd Annual Meeting is "Building bridges in ecology - linking systems, scales and disciplines".
Along the lines of this guiding theme, we will stimulate scientific discussions about all aspects in basic and applied ecological research contributing to better connect.

 Final BIO_SOS meeting in Brussels (18-19 November 2013)

The EU BON WP4 kick-off meeting will take place on 25-27 November 2013, in Solsona, Spain.

The EU BON – Biofresh Meeting will take place on November 25 2013 at the Leibniz Association Headquarter in Berlin, Germany. EU BON and Biofresh participants will present both projects and their key products, followed by discussion-rounds: Synergies and linkages between BioFresh-EU BON.

Dissemination meeting with MsMonina, Brussles (26 November 2013)

• to get to know each other better within tasks and between depending tasks,
• to advance on the understanding of the task and the work foreseen in the task,
• to explore some topics which could serve as guidance for work foreseen in tasks.

Integrating mechanisms into macroecology 

8^th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group for Macroecology of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (GfÖ)

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biology, Department Geobotany & Botanical Garden, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany

Linking processes and mechanistic approaches (e.g., from physiology, experimental ecology, demography, and evolution) with macroecological approaches, scales, and methods has long been discussed among macroecologists. Still, only few steps toward implementing such links have been taken, yet. With the 8th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group for Macroecology of the GfÖ, we want to offer a forum for presenting and discussing both tested approaches and new ideas to make these links. Additionally, in order to move beyond discussion, we invite all participants to join the conference workshop on the 2nd day. Here, we plan to intensively discuss gaps in existing approaches and possible ways for bridging these gaps in several discussion groups and to take first steps towards publishing the summarized workshop results. 

http://www.macroecology.org/

The EU BON General Meeting will take place between 30 March and 3 April 2014 at the HCMR in Gournes Pediados, Crete. The last day of the meeting 3 April 2014 will be devoted to a training Workshop, potentially covering issues on EBVs (Essential Biodiversity Variables), Modelling, Data standards, Data flow etc.

Visit our online registration platform to find information about the programme, venue, accommodation, training workshop etc

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is holding its 6th GBIF Eropean Nodes Meeting,  organized by the Belgian Biodiversity Platform. The event will take place in Brussels, 8-10 April 2014.

GBIF is an international open data infrastructure, funded by governments.It allows anyone, anywhere to access data about all types of life on Earth, shared across national boundaries via the Internet.

By encouraging and helping institutions to publish data according to common standards, GBIF enables research not possible before, and informs better decisions to conserve and sustainably use the biological resources of the planet.

More information is available on the event website.

The next 11^th LifeWatch Stakeholders Board Meeting will be take place in Crete (Greece), on July 7-8, 2014. The meeting will be hosted by the HCMR Hellenic Centre for Marine Research.

In 2014, the University of Hildesheim will host the 44th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The meeting will take place from September 8th to 12th, 2014 in Hildesheim, Germany. The guiding theme of the 44th Annual Meeting is "Integrating ecological knowledge into nature conservation and ecosystem management".

Along the lines of this guiding theme, we will stimulate scientific discussions on basic and applied ecological topics as well as on nature conservation and management. Special focus will be given to:

• biodiversity research (e.g. diversity of genes, species and ecosystems; threats and conservation)
• ecosystem functioning (e.g. ecosystem services, processes and functions, ecological dynamics)
• species and populations (e.g. interactions, competition, adaption, survival, community assembly, past and current pattern)
• ecosystem types (e.g. marine, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems; from polar to tropical regions, from lowlands to mountains)
• global change effects (e.g. climate change, land use change, nutrient deposition, invasive species)
• management (e.g. general and international approaches, restoration ecology, sustainable land management)
• conservation approaches (e.g. linking ecological knowledge to nature conservation, environmental education, sustainability, community conservation, socio-ecological approaches, policy advice)

Call for Sessions started on December 18, 2013.  The deadline for proposals has been extended until 28 February, 2013. Proposals addressing the guiding theme of the meeting as well as all other topics relevant to ecologists are welcomed.

Proposals should include the following information:

1.       A session title

2.       A short title (max 5 words or 50 characters)

3.       The goal of the session (half A4 page)

4.       Names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of chairs (up to three chairs per session)

5.       List of potential speakers

(Please note: all potential speakers will have to register and pay registration fee)

If you would like to propose and chair a session, please submit your proposal to http://www.gfoe-2014.de/index.php?cat=call_sessions.

The 21^st GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB21) and related events will take place in New Delhi, India, in the week of 15-19 September 2014. More information and a link to the registration website will be available closer to the meeting dates.

The British Ecological Society and the French Ecology Society are pleased to invite you to Lille for a joint conference which will bring together for the first time ecologists of our two countries. The aim of the conference will promote exchanges and debates on major advances in scientific ecology, and strengthen cooperation between the French and British researchers of tomorrow. The meeting will be held on 9 – 12 December at the Grand Palais, Lille, France.

The British Ecological Society and French Ecological Society invite proposals for symposia sessions at their 2014 Annual Meeting. Symposia sessions at the Annual Meeting highlight some of the most important and timely science in ecology.  They provide the overarching structure and scientific focal point to the meeting.

The topics provide a showcase and forum for the discussion of key ecological questions, vision for the future and encourage integration among disciplines. As ever, timely and well organised submissions from across the breadth of ecology are welcome; however, building on the bi-national meeting and the introduction of the EU Horizon 2020 programme of research funding, we particularly encourage submissions that highlight international and EU focused topics:

•    Agro-ecology and the CAP
•    Biodiversity and ecosystem services
•    Evolutionary ecology and disease
•    Marine ecology and the EU Marine Directive
•    Freshwater ecology and the EU Water Directive
•    Horizon 2020 Tackling Societal Challenges: http://bit.ly/193Fbo3

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2014.

The three full days of science can accommodate 18 half day symposia sessions.  Symposia proposals should include one keynote speaker allocated a 30 minute presentation and then five invited speakers, each allocated 15 minute slots.  Time devoted to synthesis and discussion is possible, but at the discretion of the organisers.  In exceptional circumstances, we will consider a full day session.

Proposers are responsible for the speakers submitting their abstracts and registrations on time.

- See more at: http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/events/current_future_meetings/2014-annual-meeting/

Following the GEO BON RS4EBV workshop, an EU BON Task Force meeting will take place on 29 January 2015 at the IDIV, Leipzig.

More information: https://rd-alliance.org/plenary-meetings/rda-fifth-plenary-meeting.html

The 37th CETAF General Meeting that will take place in Meise, Belgium on 21-22 April, 2015. The meeting will take place at the at the Botanic Garden Meise, in the Bouchout Domain, Nieuwelaan 38, 1860 Meise (Belgium).

CETAF37 will focus on conducting the annual CETAF business, including CETAF’s financial issues and administrative activities, as well as the consolidation of the CETAF strategic development plan. A workshop on the activities that will be undertaken by CETAF within the context of the CETAF strategy has been organized for the second day of the meeting.

More information will be available on the CETAF website: http://www.cetaf.org/events

The SETAC Europe 25^th Annual Meeting will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, from 3-7 May 2015.  

The innovative use of chemicals and nanomaterials in new technologies, industry and agriculture challenges many aspects of the ecosystem functioning of the global environment. However, these new technologies and materials also offer opportunities to remediate or minimise these anthropogenic insults. Finding innovative solutions to environmental problems is ever more important in the current economic scenario.  This international conference brings together experts from government, industry, consultancy and academia to meet this challenge. The conference will focus on the most recent advances in environmental sciences and will provide platforms for implementing this knowledge, for improving the protection of our environment and to shape policies from current viewpoints to future needs.

Learn more here: http://barcelona.setac.eu/general_info/welcome!/?contentid=790&pr_id=766&last=769&sub=790

The Globis-B kick-off meeting will take place in Amsterdam from on 8-10 June (Monday till Wednesday). The kick-off meetingwill  bring the consortium together to talk through the different parts of the project. A mini-symposium is also planned for Wednesday morning with three talks from international speakers about research topics that are relevant for the project.

Globis-B  stands for GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research and is a H2020 project within the coordination & support action funding scheme of the H2020-INFRASUPP-2014-2 call. The main aim of the project is to bring together scientists with global research infrastructure operators and legal interoperability experts to address the research needs and infrastructure services required to calculate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV). Currently we are finalizing the grant agreement with the EU and the project will probably starting on 1st June 2015. 

The official kick-off meeting of the EU funded Horizon 2020 project ECOPOTENTIAL will take place on 25-26 June 2015 in the ancient Valentino Castle on the bank of the Po river in Torino, Italy.

The main objective of this project led by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) is to making Earth Observation and Monitoring Data usable for ecosystem modelling and services. This will also be done in selected Protected Areas in Europe, with a strong focus on mountain ecosystems, including a specific pilot site in the Carpathians. The project will make an important contribution to the work of the Group on Earth Observation (GEOSS) as well as UNEP Live.

More information and agenda to follow.

In 2015, the University of Göttingen will host the 45th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The meeting will take place from August 31st to September 4 th, 2015 in Göttingen, Germany. 

The guiding theme of the 45th Annual Meeting is "Ecology for a Sustainable Future". Along the lines of this guiding theme, we will stimulate scientific discussions on basic and applied ecological topics as well as on nature conservation and management. Special focus will be given to: 

• Species, populations and ecosystems (e.g. interactions, competition, adaption, survival, community assembly, past and current pattern, all types of ecosystems)
• ecosystem functioning (e.g. ecosystem services, processes and functions, ecological dynamics)
• global change effects (e.g. climate change, land use change, nutrient deposition, invasive species, mitigation, effects on biodiversity)
• impact of land use (biodiversity, ecosystem functions, restoration ecology, sustainable land management)
• conservation approaches (e.g. linking ecological knowledge to nature conservation, environmental education, sustainability, community conservation, socio-ecological approaches, policy advice)

Submission of abstracts: from 31 March 2015 to 15 May 2015

For more information, registration and to submit an abstract, please visit the official webpage of teh conference: http://www.gfoe-2015.de/index.php?cat=show_start

The official Governing Board meeting, including the GBIF symposium, will take place on 8-10 October in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Prior to that there will be Training sessions for Nodes on 4-5 October, followed by the Global Nodes Meeting on 6-7 October. Committee meetings will take place on 6 October.

A special symposium will be hosted on 7 October where all delegates are invited to attend. After the Governing Board meeting, on 11 October, there is a possibility to visit the Andasibe National Park.  

Please also find the official invitation and the proposed agenda attached below.

SBSTTA 19 - Nineteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice will take place from 2 to 5 November 2015 in Montreal, Canada.

The 2015 AGU Fall Meeting "Earth Observations in Environmental Management & Policy" will take place from 14 to 18 December in San Francisco, CA.

With nearly 24,000 attendees, the AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. Now in its 48th year, the AGU Fall Meeting is the best place to present your research, hear about the latest discoveries, trends, and challenges in the field, and network and make connections that can enhance your career.

For more information see the event's offiicial webpage: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2015/

CETAF39 will be hosted by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest on the 3-4 May 2016.

More information coming soon here: http://cetaf.org/cetaf-39-general-meeting-budapest

The Annual meetings of the LTER-Europe network and the eLTER H2020 project will take place between 13 and 17 June, 2016 in Latvia. 

The annual LTER-Europe meeting will take place during this week, along with the annual eLTER H2020 project meeting. The current outline schedule (subject to change) is:

• Monday 13 June, 18:00 - 22:00: Welcome party
• Tuesday 14 June, 09:00 - 17:00: LTER-Europe meeting
• Wednesday 15 June, 09:00 - 18:00: eLTER H2020 project meeting
• Thursday 16 June, 09:00 - 18:00: eLTER H2020 project meeting
• Friday 17 June, 09:00 - 12:00: eLTER Core Team meeting

For updated information go to: http://www.lter-europe.net/events/lter-europe-2016

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin are organizing the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) to be held from June 20 through 25, 2016, in Berlin, Germany.

Under the heading "Green Museum – How to practice what we preach?" this meeting of the society evaluates green thinking in collections, museums and botanical gardens. In a world of climate change and ever decreasing biodiversity, sustainability  should be the criterion that ideally determines all planning and decisions, ranging from field work to construction projects,  from ethical aspects to cost-benefit analyses.

In practice this often is compromised by constraints beyond the control of the institution, be it monetary, legal or other. The conference will offer a forum to discuss possible ways of reconciling the seemingly opposing requirements. 

More information here.

The 2016 GEO BON Open Science Conference: "Biodiversity and ecosystem Services Monitoring for the 2020 Targets and beyond. Building on observations for user needs" and the GEO BON ALL-Hands-Meeting will take place from 4 to 9 July 2016 in Leipzig, Germany. Registration for the event is now open!

The GEO BON Open Science Conference & All Hands Meeting will be a major event to bring together all of those interested in developing biodiversity monitoring programs, biodiversity observations research, and sound biodiversity management. The first 2½ days will be organized as an Open Science Conference, with oral and poster presentations in parallel sessions.

There will be also some keynotes from renown speakers. This conference is an opportunity to open GEO BON to anyone interested in joining our community. The second 2½ will be the All Hands Meeting and organized as parallel workshops on specific topics. These workshops may have products (e.g. a guide to monitor an EBV) and/or may lay out a work plan for a working group for 2016-2019. The All Hands Meeting is open to everybody active or wanting to be active in GEO BON.

Deadline abstract submission: 1 April 2016

For more information and to register, please see the official event's page.

In 2016, the University of Marburg hosts the 46th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The meeting (www.gfoe-2016.de) will take place from September 5 to 9, 2016 in Marburg, Germany.

Call for sessions:

The organizing committee encourages all members of the GfÖ and all scientists interested in ecological research to organize and chair further sessions for presentations or workshops.

Proposals for sessions will be accepted from 15 December to 15 February 2016. We welcome proposals addressing the guiding theme of the meeting as well as all other topics relevant to ecologists.

Topics:

1. Functional and evolutionary ecology

2. Multitrophic interactions

3. Ecosystem and global change

4 Macroecology and biogeography

5. Ecological services and social ecology

6. Conservation

If you would like to propose and chair a session, please submit your proposal to www.gfoe-2016.de.

• Nitrogen impacts on ecosystems structures and functioning.
• Carbon and water cycles under climate change.
• Towards sustainable usage of ecosystem services (local, regional & global).
• Drivers of biodiversity across scales.
• Data integration and interoperability enabling global scale ecosystem research and linking with environmental monitoring.
• Linking local, regional and global Earth system observations and models.

• LTER researchers and scientific site coordinators (PIs).
• LTER stakeholders and partners
• The participation of early career scholars and postgraduate researchers is encouraged.

More information here.

The 23rd GBIF Governing Board meeting, committee meetings and the annual science symposium will take place at the Complexo Brasil 21, in Brasilia, Brazil from 24-27 October 2016. 

More information here.

The 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will take place from 4 to 17 December 2016 - Cancun, Mexico.

More information to follow here: https://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=cop-13

The EU BON Final Meeting takes place from 14 - 16 March 2017.

14 March 2017

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Museum of Natural Sciences
Vautier Street 13
1000 Brussels, Belgium

and

15 - 16 March 2017

Bouchout Castle
Botanic Garden Meise
Nieuwelaan 38
1860 Meise, Belgium

An overview of the programme can be found here.

To register for the Meeting please visit the registration page.

Please see also the Meeting's venues and accommodation pages.

Find out more on the official symposium webpage.

The Second ECOPOTENTIAL General Scientific Meeting and General Assembly of Partners will take place in Heraklion, Crete, from May 16th to May 19th, kindly hosted by the ECOPOTENTIAL Partner FORTH.

The General Meeting is aimed at a comprehensive presentation and discussion about the research activities, highlighting the status of the project, the main results, the critical points and the future perspectives. The Scientific advisors will give lectures and will participate to the discussion. Main topics will be The Essential Variables, the Status of Remote Sensing data, in situ data and modelling, the Virtual Laboratory Platform, the research on changes over Protected Areas and future projections, as well as the issues related to cross scale interactions. 

More information here.

The third meeting of the BioSyst.EU will be organized by the Swedish Systematics Association, Sweden and will take place in Gothenburg in August 14–18, 2017. More information on the meeting will be published in February-March 2016.

For more infromation visist: http://www.biosyst.eu/

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