Collections

Critical environmental challenges affect aquatic ecosystems worldwide, and the need to coordinate research efforts is increasingly urgent. Mesocosms are key Research Infrastructures (RIs) allowing the study of highly complex environments comparable to natural ecosystems. Mesocosm experiments, which offer controlled yet realistic settings, are crucial for understanding and mitigating the impact of various stressors and their combinations on aquatic ecosystems. The AQUACOSM-RI consortium, comprising over 60 individual state-of-the-art mesocosm facilities at 28 host institutions across Europe, has therefore been instrumental in advancing aquatic environmental research across climate zones including marine, brackish and freshwater ecosystems.

The AQUANAVI project (Navigating Grand Challenges and their Mitigation using Aquatic Experimental RIs) aims to create an interactive atlas of aquatic mesocosm-based experimental research. Data, publications, reports and information generated by the AQUACOSM consortium and other mesocosm facilities worldwide will be integrated into a single, accessible platform incorporating Open Knowledge Maps' AI-driven visual discovery tools. The project will foster collaborations and, by enhancing data FAIRness, it will facilitate fast discovery and efficient use of aquatic RIs globally, accelerating the development of environmental mitigation strategies.

Critical environmental challenges affect aquatic ecosystems worldwide, and the need to coordinate research efforts is increasingly urgent. Mesocosms are key Research Infrastructures (RIs) allowing the study of highly complex environments comparable to natural ecosystems. Mesocosm experiments, which  ...

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) is a pan-European initiative that aims to facilitate the generation of high-quality reference genomes for the continent’s biodiversity as part of the global Earth BioGenome Project. Serving as the European node of this worldwide endeavour, ERGA brings together researchers and stakeholders to coordinate standardised sampling, sequencing, data management, assembly, and annotation for reference genomes across diverse groups of eukaryotes. Through projects like the ERGA Pilot Project and the Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) project, as well as contributions from ERGA national nodes and the broader research community, ERGA aims to accelerate the generation and sharing of genomic resources that will contribute to future discoveries and genomics-based applications in ecology, evolution, bioeconomy, and conservation of species in Europe.

An ERGA Genome Report is a technical description that clearly presents the methodologies employed for sequencing and assembling genomes, together with standard quality metrics and relevant metadata, and genome annotation information if available. The ERGA Genome Reports preprinted and/or published through this collection follow a standardised format to ensure consistent quality and facilitate data findability and reuse. Genome Reports published elsewhere will be considered for inclusion in this collection if they (1) align with the ERGA Genome Report standards and (2) clearly acknowledge ERGA in the manuscript. The requirements and recommendations for a Genome Report publication to be included in this collection are detailed here. Through collating Genome Reports from across ERGA affiliated projects and members, this collection provides an open-access resource that promotes high standards, supports comparative analyses, and drives advances in genomics research. Additional information can be obtained from the editors.

The creation of this collection was supported by the Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) project through the Horizon Europe Framework Programme of the European Union under grant agreement No. 101059492, funded by Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment (REA.B.3); co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 22.00173 and 24.00054; and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme.

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) is a pan-European initiative that aims to facilitate the generation of high-quality reference genomes for the continent’s biodiversity as part of the global Earth BioGenome Project. Serving as the European node of this worldwide endeavour, ERGA brings toget ...

This collection hosts the outcomes from the Horizon Europe project PollinERA, grant agreement No. 101135005 (2024-2027), which aims to reverse pollinator population declines and reduce the harmful impacts of pesticides through developing a new systems based environmental risk assessment scheme, tools, and protocols. It includes a broad range of toxicological testing, feeding to in silico models (QSARS, toxicokinetic/toxicodynamic, and ALMaSS agent-based population simulations). Using a strong stakeholder co-development approach, these models will be combined in a One System framework, taking a systems view on risk assessment and policy evaluation, including an international monitoring program developed within the project. The One System framework builds on the recent EFSA Roadmap for action on the environmental risk assessment of chemicals for insect pollinators (IPol‐ERA) project. It expands the environmental risk assessment tools currently used for honey bees to include wild bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies.  

As the PollinERA project progresses, the RIO Collection will continue to expand, serving as a repository for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners and offering a diverse array of reports, protocols, methodologies, and research papers. 

This collection hosts the outcomes from the Horizon Europe project PollinERA, grant agreement No. 101135005 (2024-2027), which aims to reverse pollinator population declines and reduce the harmful impacts of pesticides through developing a new systems based environmental risk assessment scheme, tool ...

The European Union's 2030 Biodiversity Strategy aims to place species and ecosystems on the recovery path by 2030, preserving and restoring Europe's natural capital, and positioning Europe at the forefront of global biodiversity conservation efforts. These commitments urgently respond to the decline of species and the deterioration of nature. A key component of this Strategy is the development of a Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N) that protects ecosystems and their contributions to people against threats from climate change and unsustainable land use. The TEN-N is expected to increase the resilience of natural ecosystems, supported by the existing Natura 2000 Network and other nationally designated protected areas. New designations are expected to contribute to achieving protected land, including inland waters, comprising 30% of the territory, increasing the network's ecological representativeness, and incorporating novel strictly protected and ecological connectivity areas. Implementing the TEN-N faces major challenges in defining criteria and planning tools to maximize the network's representativeness and connectivity at the European level.

The TEN-N should create a functionally connected system, assimilating biodiversity conservation goals with nature-based solutions for societal needs, such as green and blue infrastructure. In the face of global change, the Network should also ensure that species communities can adapt, providing sufficient and connected spaces for nature. Achieving these goals requires innovative planning approaches, integrating models of biodiversity and ecosystem change with conservation prioritization tools and participatory processes. The TEN-N must be based on SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) conservation and management objectives and monitoring methods.

NaturaConnect aims to support the development of the TEN-N through transdisciplinary research. Participatory processes are central to its activities, involving stakeholder engagement at regional, national, and international levels. Predictive biodiversity and ecosystem service models form the backbone for analyzing protected area representativeness and connectivity, taking into account multiple prioritization criteria and the diverse perspectives and needs of nature conservation. NaturaConnect seeks to develop data, analytical tools, and knowledge to support solutions —namely, the blueprint for TEN-N configurations. It also analyses best practices for governance of area-based conservation measures and potential funding mechanisms to provide the European Commission and Member States with a comprehensive set of planning and implementation support tools.

Only publications directly resulting from the NaturaConnect project are accepted in this collection.

The European Union's 2030 Biodiversity Strategy aims to place species and ecosystems on the recovery path by 2030, preserving and restoring Europe's natural capital, and positioning Europe at the forefront of global biodiversity conservation efforts. These commitments urgently respond to the decline ...

LifeWatch ERIC has embarked on its new destination towards upgrading and (co-)constructing its Infrastructure as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders. Through an industrialization process, all independent data, software components, publications and other types of research products contributed by the Member Countries will be consolidated and integrated to enable collaborative development. The Technology Readiness Level of LifeWatch ERIC will be soaring to TRL9. This process is described in its new Strategic Working Plan on its second implementation period (2022-2026). Accordingly, this topical collection of papers includes articles which describe the main outcomes, that is the deliverables of this new Strategic Working Plan. The deliverables published in this topical collection are of not confidential nature and are developed in the form of a standard, structured template.

LifeWatch ERIC has embarked on its new destination towards upgrading and (co-)constructing its Infrastructure as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders. Through an industrialization process, all independent data, software components, publications and other types of resear ...

This collection presents significant findings and outcomes from the Horizon Europe project - MAMBO (Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of Biodiversity). The project addresses the crucial need for comprehensive and unbiased biodiversity data in Europe. By developing cutting-edge monitoring tools and integrating advanced technologies, MAMBO aims to enhance our understanding of species and habitats with limited knowledge.

MAMBO brings together experts in computer science, remote sensing, social sciences, environmental economics, citizen science, species biology, ecology, and conservation biology, fostering collaboration and leveraging existing research infrastructure.

As the MAMBO project progresses, the RIO Collection will continue to expand, providing a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

This collection presents significant findings and outcomes from the Horizon Europe project - MAMBO (Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of Biodiversity). The project addresses the crucial need for comprehensive and unbiased biodiversity data in Europe. By developing cutting-edge monitoring tools and ...

The Digital Botanical Gardens Initiative (DBGI) ambitions to explore innovative solutions for the collection, management and sharing of digital information acquired on living botanical collections. A particular focus is placed on the large scale characterization of the chemodiversity of living plants collections through mass spectrometric approaches. The acquired data is structured, organized and connected with relevant metadata through semantic web technology. The gathered knowledge can then be exploited to inform ecosystem functioning research and orient biodiversity conservation projects. The DBGI initially aims to take advantage of the readily available living collections of Swiss botanical gardens to establish robust and scalable chemo- and biodiversity digitization workflows. The ultimate goal is to apply these approaches in the field and at the global scale in wild ecosystems. In this sense, the DBGI is a pilot for the larger Earth Metabolome Initiative (EMI) see https://www.earthmetabolome.org/

This topical collection will gather and share the reserach outcomes of the DBGI.

The Digital Botanical Gardens Initiative (DBGI) ambitions to explore innovative solutions for the collection, management and sharing of digital information acquired on living botanical collections. A particular focus is placed on the large scale characterization of the chemodiversity of living plant ...

Natural science collections are a treasure trove of data that are pivotal in finding solutions from and for nature; from conservation, health, minimising the degradation of natural capital and finding new sources of critical minerals, to addressing the challenges of food security, water scarcity and the impact of natural disasters.

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is a pan-European Research Infrastructure (RI) that aims to digitally unify natural science collections - some 1.5 billion specimens - from 175 museums, botanical gardens, and universities across 23 countries in a distributed infrastructure that makes these collections physically and digitally open and accessible for all forms of research and innovation. DiSSCo’s preparatory phase ran from January 2020 to February 2023. This collection of articles highlights the major outputs of the DiSSCo Prepare project, which address five aspects of implementation readiness: the technical, scientific, data, organisational and financial readiness levels.

Natural science collections are a treasure trove of data that are pivotal in finding solutions from and for nature; from conservation, health, minimising the degradation of natural capital and finding new sources of critical minerals, to addressing the challenges of food security, water scarcity and ...

The European Union has established the European Science Open Cloud (EOSC), as the “system of systems” Infrastructure where scientists, stakeholders and other types of users can find data, analytical web services, publications, networks and other research resources to carry out their work.

The ESFRI Research Infrastructures form five thematic Science Clusters within the EOSC ecosystem: ENVRI FAIR on the Environment, EOSC Life for the Life and Biomedical Sciences, PANOSC for the Photon and Neutron, SSHOC for the Social Sciences and Humanities and ESCAPE for the Astronomy & Particle Physics. These Clusters are critical to the development of the EOSC integrated environment for the provision of the research resources, whose integration, composition and use by their communities will undoubtedly enhance the emerging EOSC infrastructure. They also provide examples of how shared projects, the Science Projects, can contribute to addressing major societal challenges for Europe and demonstrate how Research Infrastructures can align to support Horizon Europe's missions within EOSC.

This collection of articles highlights the major outputs of these EOSC Future Science Projects: their planning, implementation and the engagement of the relevant scientific community.

The European Union has established the European Science Open Cloud (EOSC), as the “system of systems” Infrastructure where scientists, stakeholders and other types of users can find data, analytical web services, publications, networks and other research resources to carry out their work.

The ESF ...