The SciDataCon 2014 will take place on 2–5 November 2014 in New Delhi, India and will be hosted by the Indian National Science Academy. With high-level keynotes, a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, and a stimulating poster session, SciDataCon is conceived as a focussed—yet inclusive—conference to address the issues most important to the global scientific and research community as they pertain to data and information. The International Scientific Programme Committee will play a key role in implementing the scientific programme with innovative online consultation and input from research and data science communities worldwide.

The sustainability challenges facing society today cannot be solved without multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on global sustainability that requires the use, sharing and integration of data across scientific disciplines and domains and from international sources. The effectiveness and credibility of this research will rely on the availability to the scientific and research community of quality-assessed and interoperable datasets.

To facilitate the work of international research undertakings—including the Future Earth international research programme on global sustainability launched by ICSU and its partners in 2014—and amplify the message of like-minded global data initiatives promoting data sharing and interoperability—including the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the recently established Research Data Alliance (RDA)—SciDataCon 2014 will highlight the theme of Data Sharing and Integration for Global Sustainability.

Applications for expert members of the International Scientific Programme Committee are invited. Please submit applications no later than 14 February 2014 using the online form available here.

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a Botanical Nomenclature training course targeted at MSc students, PhD students, early career researchers,  professional systematists/taxonomists and anyone who is interested in the philosophy of Biological Systematics. The course has a duration of one week and will take place between 26-30 January 2015 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK.

Deadline for registrationis 10 October 2014. Participants will receive notification by 24 October 2014 whether accepted to the course. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/botanical-nomenclature-3

Course description
This in-depth course will teach the principles of plant nomenclature according to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN) so that participants can apply good nomenclatural practice when undertaking taxonomic revisions, compiling checklists etc. This will be achieved by lectures illustrated with examples from the ICN, workshop sessions applying what has been learned to "real life" cases, and by encouraging participants to discuss nomenclatural problems they have encountered.

Participants will have time to pursue their own research interests using the collections at Kew, with the emphasis on identifying and solving nomenclatural problems.
Short seminars will give participants the opportunity to present nomenclatural problems relevant to their own research.

Place and date: Joensuu, Finland, 19 March 2015

Venue: Joensuu Science Park, Digitarium and the Conference Facility "Network Oasis"

The 2nd EU BON training on data sharing tools will take place side by side to CETAF/EU BON informatics workshops (see full program and logistic details here). The event will be organised by UEF and Digitarium, EU BON consortium member and work package leader (WP2), in collaboration with CETAF ISTC and other EU BON work packages.

Next topics will be covered:

• Introduction to GEOSS, GEO BON, EU BON (Hannu Saarenmaa)
• Information architecture of EU BON (Antonio Garcia)
• Data standards, Darwin Core and extensions for sample-based quantitative data (Éamonn Ó Tuama)
• Demonstration of GBIF/EU BON IPT for monitoring networks (Larissa Smirnova and Franck Theeten)
• Practical exercise with sample dataset (Larissa Smirnova and Franck Theeten)
• Practical exercise with own data (all trainees)

The workshop will include lectures and hands-on work, so participants are required to bring their own laptops. We will provide information and instructions on software installations. If the participants want to install IPT tool themselves, they can read and learn how to de it here. For the practical exercises it’s recommended to bring  own data (taxonomic, monitoring).

From 22 to 24 March 2015, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) will host an international conference at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, entitled, Africa Rising: Mobilising Biodiversity Data for Sustainable Development. The event is being organised in partnership with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). It aims to:

1. Accelerate regional understanding of the biodiversity data-science-policy value chain and draw attention to the opportunities and solutions that biodiversity data presents for sustainable development in Africa;
2. Strengthen regional engagement, learning networks, and collaborative synergies with a view to streamlining the data-science-policy value chain; and
3. Galvanise political commitment to mobilising Africa’s biodiversity data.

The event emanates from the project, Mobilising Africa’s Biodiversity Data, which is generously supported by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and entails developing a strategy for capturing, digitising and publishing Africa’s policy-relevant biodiversity data whilst strengthening regional capacity and collaboration in biodiversity information management.

More information is available at: http://www.sanbi.org/news/sanbi-host-africa-rising-mobilising-biodiversity-data-sustainable-development-conference

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium) is part of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase program, the RMCA has five grants available for a 3-month training program in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes.

The training includes three subsets:

1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes;
3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

This course has been offered annually since 2005 and is held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium). To apply for traineeship and for more information, please click here or here. Please note that for 2015, this course will be given in English only.

Questions? Contact Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be).

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.  

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium), member of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa in the FishBase database, is organizing  the 'FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Session 2016'. This course has been offered annually since 2005 and held regularly in the RMCA located at Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase program, the RMCA has five (5) grants available for this year's 3-month training program (from 07 March up to 27 May 2016) in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes. To apply for traineeship and for more information, see: http://fishbase.africamuseum.be or  www.fishbaseforafrica.org.

The training course will have three (3) subsets:

1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes;
3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

*For 2016, this course will be given in French only.

Questions? Contact Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be).

The 33rd (International Society of Limnology) SIL conference "Science for sustainable freshwater use" will be held from 31 July until 5 August 2016 in torino, Italy. 

Our planet is under pressure due to increased demand for freshwater. The availability and suitability of water resources are threatened by human influences, directly, through globally unbalancing the slow and fast water cycles and impairing water quality, and indirectly through the adverse effects of climate change. Many freshwater ecosystems are deteriorating in quantity and quality. As a result, an increasing number of people are chronically short of water.

In this context, limnology must represent the answer to the planetary water crisis as we need more science and more scientists to urgently face a sustainable and effective freshwater recovery. This need can be satisfied only improving our knowledge in Limnological Sciences and the people awareness of what science can do for a more sustainable use of freshwater ecosystems.

More information available here: http://www.sil2016.it/

The 5th International EcoSummit Congress, EcoSummit 2016 - Ecological Sustainability: Engineering Change, will take place at The Corum Convention Centre, Montpellier from 29 August – 1 September 2016.

This conference series was founded in 1996 in Copenhagen, as a forum to meet the demands of scientists working in several new ecological disciplines, and who required a better understanding of the concepts and methods for a holistic use of ecology in environmental management. Since 1996, EcoSummit has been taken around the world (Canada and China), with EcoSummit 2012 hosting 1600 participants from 75 countries in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

EcoSummit 2016 will centre on the ecology of terrestrial ecosystems and all habitats that are integrated within those ecosystems, including river networks, wetlands and coastlines. 

More information: http://www.ecosummit2016.org/

The EU ABS Regulation workshop aims at providing the participants with knowledge about their obligations under the EU ABS Regulation and what they practically imply for their everyday work. In the first part of the workshop, the new legal framework will be explained, providing insight into the main provisions of the EU ABS Regulation. In the second part of the workshop, participants will have a chance to put the knowledge gained into practice through interactive case studies, based on real-life examples and realistic scenarios.

Registration page: http://www.euconf.eu/abs/en/registration/index.html

The 4th EU BON roundtable will take place on Thursday, 17 November 2016 at the premises of the Museum fuer Naturkunde in Berlin with the motto "Pathways to sustainability for EU BONs network of collaborators and technical infrastructure".  

One of the key questions will be how to achieve sustainability for the many different products of EU BON, such as tools, software, models and infrastructure after the project ends. It should be discussed how a European Biodiversity Observation Network and its essential components could be sustained after the project will end in May 2017, by which institutions or networks and how the products can be used in the best way for European policy and research needs.  

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Carme Forcadell was the speaker of the Catalan parliament until January - but has spent almost nine months in prison.

BBC News

By Niall O'Gallagher

19Decembre2018

The 63-year-old was jailed in March, facing charges of rebellion for her part in the 2017 push for Catalan independence.

She spends 15 hours a day alone in her cell. If convicted, she faces up to 17 years in prison.

Now she is calling on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to order her release.

In a rare interview at the Mas d'Enric prison, Ms Forcadell told the BBC that life in her 10 square-metre cell was proving difficult.

"Every day is very hard because you know you are innocent but you don't know how many days and nights you'll stay locked up," she said. "I greatly miss my family and those I love."

"It is especially hard for my mother, who is 90 years old and suffers a lot. Also for my husband and my sons – I want to get out soon for them. When they come to see me, I see the suffering reflected in their eyes."

At home in Sabadell, her husband Bernat Pegueroles is also having a hard time.

• Catalan crisis in 300 words

• Catalonia region profile

• Catalonia: What would an economic split mean?

"It has broken the family, in a way," he said.

"My sons get on with their lives, but they are suffering too because their mother isn't here. We have a one-year-old grandson and she hasn't seen him growing."

"Now he has started walking, and she is excited when we visit – but the lad doesn't recognise her," he said.

Who is Carme Forcadell?

Ms Forcadell was the speaker of the Barcelona parliament when it voted to declare Catalonia an independent republic on 27 October last year, following a disputed vote in the region a few weeks earlier.

She spent a single night in jail that November before being released on bail – but was sent back to prison in March 2018.

Her legal team are filing a petition with the ECHR in Strasbourg, saying Ms Forcadell's pre-trial detention breaches her human rights.

The trial is expected to begin in Spain in the new year.

What is her case?

Spanish prosecutors allege that Ms Forcadell was part of a conspiracy to achieve independence illegally – specifically, that she allowed parliamentary debates on independence to go ahead despite warnings from Spain's Constitutional Court.

Yet Ms Forcadell insists she did nothing wrong.

"My role as speaker of the parliament cannot be to censor the debate, if there is a parliamentary majority which has been elected in free and democratic elections and which wants to speak about this subject," she said.

"My duty is to defend the sovereignty of parliament, freedom of expression, political pluralism, and the right of initiative of the deputies."

"In a democratic parliament, the word has to be free. One has to be able to speak about everything. The only limit must be respect for fundamental rights," she said.

Eight other Catalan leaders are in jail awaiting trial in connection with the October 2017 push for independence. They are:

• Dolors Bassa, former labour minister

• Jordi Sànchez, former president, Catalan National Assembly

• Oriol Junqueras, former vice-president

• Jordi Cuixart, president of Omnium Cultural

• Jordi Turull, former Catalan government spokesman

• Josep Rull, former territorial minister

• Joaquim Forn, former interior minister

• Raul Romeva, former external relations minister

What does Spain say?

Teresa Cunillera, the Spanish government's delegate in Barcelona, denies there are political prisoners in Catalonia.

Instead, she said "there are some politicians who, in exercising their responsibilities, broke the law".

"So the courts acted, and as a result they are now in the hands of justice," she said.

Spain's Supreme Court held an initial hearing on Tuesday to decide whether it was competent to hear the trial.

Defence lawyers want the case to be tried by a court in Catalonia, but others have faith in the courts in Madrid.

Inés Arrimadas leads the pro-Spain Citizens party in the Barcelona parliament.

"I wish they hadn't done what they did, but they declared independence," she said.

"They approved a rule which went outside the Spanish constitution, they denied our rights, they silenced us as the opposition in the parliament of Catalonia."

"I think that politicians have to answer before the law like any other citizen."

Interview: Imprisoned politician Josep Rull awaits trial for rebellion

THE IRISH TIMES

By GUY HEDGECOE

Decembre 20, 2018

In early November 2017, Josep Rull, the former Catalan minister for territory and sustainability, posted the following on his Twitter account: “If you see this tweet then I’ve been jailed for being loyal to the ballot box.”

More than 13 months later, Rull (50) is still in prison, although he was released on bail for several weeks earlier this year. He and 17 other pro-independence leaders are awaiting trial for their alleged role in Catalonia’s failed bid for independence last year and nine of them are in custody. At the beginning of December, Rull and three others – Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Joaquim Forn – began a hunger strike at Lledoners prison where they are being held.

Their protest is driven by the fact that they remain in jail even though their trial has no scheduled date. They also argue that the Spanish judiciary has deliberately blocked appeals they have made in order to prevent their complaints from reaching the European Court of Human Rights.

“I want my case – and those of my colleagues – to reach the European courts,” Rull told The Irish Times, in a written interview carried out via email. “But the Spanish courts put up obstacles because they fear being undermined by a truly impartial and independent judiciary.”

The Catalan government says Rull has lost 7kg since beginning the strike. Yet the quartet who are carrying out the action appear to have embarked on it with caution. Jordi Sànchez told a radio interviewer recently: “I don’t want to be the Catalan Bobby Sands.” He added: “We haven’t gone crazy. We’re not going to immolate ourselves.”

Reoffending

The supreme court says it was keeping Rull and the other prisoners in custody in order to prevent them from reoffending and from fleeing the country, as former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and several others did.

The independence movement has sought to place the nine imprisoned leaders, who also include former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, at the centre of Spain’s ongoing territorial crisis. It argues they are political prisoners being punished for their views, not their actions.

Rull says that he is “in jail for fulfilling the mandate expressed by Catalan society in democratic elections: calling a referendum and applying its result”, a reference to the outlawed independence vote held in October 2017, during which police attacked many Catalans as they attempted to cast their vote.

As for the upcoming trial, Rull says that the guilt of the defendants is a foregone conclusion. If he is found guilty, he could face a jail sentence of up to 16 years for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Junqueras faces a possible 25-year sentence.

“Our trial does not have the objective conditions necessary to make it trustworthy,” Rull says, adding that after the verdict he will appeal to the European judiciary. “I want to take the opportunity to show how this trial is designed [by Spain] to serve as a lesson to those who want independence, with the aim of making them give up their desire for freedom.”

Recent controversies

A string of recent controversies within the Spanish judiciary – including some affecting the supreme court – has helped fuel such criticism, despite the insistence of the central government and others that the trial will be fair.

Yet while the hunger strike seeks to draw international attention to the Catalan issue, it also seems to have underlined divisions within the independence movement. The four prisoners carrying out the protest are all members of the Together for Catalonia (JxCat) parliamentary group, whose relationship with the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), which represents four of the other prisoners, has been deteriorating.

On Wednesday, five former Catalan presidents, including Carles Puigdemont, were among those who appealed to the hunger strikers to call off their action in order to safeguard their health.

Rull, however, denies that the strike could make relationships within the independence movement worse.

“The movement is broad and diverse,” he says. “It’s not necessary for us all to do the same thing because we all respect the peaceful actions of others.”  

Yet the movement’s unity is clearly under pressure and the Catalan president, Quim Torra of JxCat, is struggling to balance the political demands of his post with the need to remain popular among grassroots activists. His recent praise for the Slovenian route to independence, which saw dozens of people killed in 1991, has been seen as a mistake by many, including some allies.

Unimpressed

But Rull insists that blame for the lack of improvement in relations between Madrid and Catalonia lies squarely with Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. His efforts to reduce tensions by taking a series of measures aimed at normalising the relationship with the region have left pro-independence Catalans unimpressed.

“[The] Spanish government should take much bolder steps in order to be able to embark on an effective process of political dialogue, which is the only way of finding solutions to the conflict,” Rull says.

Yet it is the political right that appears to have been emboldened, demanding that Sánchez reintroduce direct rule in Catalonia. Meanwhile, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Pablo Casado, has dismissed the hunger strike as a “high-protein diet”.

Reckless response

There is speculation in many quarters that if Spain’s political turmoil continues, resulting in a reckless response to the Catalan crisis by Madrid, it could benefit the independence movement, which already casts itself as the victim of an undemocratic state.

“There are, without a doubt, pro-independence Catalans who think like that, but I’m not one of them,” says Rull.

“Anyway, the ones who benefit most from the tensions between Catalonia and Madrid are not the Catalan [pro-independence] parties but rather the Spanish parties which share the vision of Spain that the Franco regime had.”

© 2018 irishtimes.com

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