Ecology and Economy for a Sustainable Society
This year’s Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity has been organized to be held from May 27 until May 31, 2013 in Trondheim, Norway.  The conference will go under the "Ecology and Economy for a Sustainable Society" slogan and will be aimed at exploring how to cut development pathways towards a sustainable society by aligning policy, business, economy and ecology across borders, scales and systems.
Since the first Trondheim Conference held in 1993, the world population has grown by 25 %, the total GDP by 75 % and world trade has tripled. Despite positive achievements, loss of biodiversity along with global warming is undermining human wellbeing, especially that of the poor and vulnerable. Those issues and finding suitable solution will be on the main agenda of the 2013 Trondheim Conference.

Participation and registration
Participation in the conference is by invitation only. Each country has been invited to send two experts, one from each field of biodiversity and economy/planning. Invitees may register for the conference on the Participation and registration page.

The IALE 2013 European Congress "Changing European Landscapes: Landscape ecology, local to global" will take place on 9-12 September 2013, in Manchester, UK. This major international event, organised by IALE UK and IALE Europe, will examine how and why European landscapes are changing and how landscape ecology can help us to plan for the future at local to global scales. It will consider local projects alongside international programmes and provide many opportunities for researchers, policy makers and practitioners to interact. The congress will have a European focus but we look forward to welcoming participants from around the world.

More information and how to register find here.

The Conference "Adapting to Global Change in the Mediterranean hotspot - AGCM" will be held in Seville, Spain on 18-20 September 2013. The conference is organised by Donana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) within the FP7 funded  EcoGenes project.  Its main purpose is to explore and gather a variety of  independent research threads to reveal overall patterns on how the world around us is changing and the many ways different organisms respond to that change.

By bringing together researchers who investigate various aspects of this global change and the way individuals, populations and communities respond to it, and who employ a wide variety of experimental and theoretical tools, the conference aims at hope to make intellectual progress on particular issues and move research in the area forward.

The specific themes that will be addressed are:

• Phenotypic responses to global change
• Breakdown of species boundaries
• Emergent diseases in changing environments
• Responses to past global change
• Adaptation and speciation in response to changing environments
• Biological invasions: from species adaptation to ecosystem responses
• Monitoring ecosystems responses
• Consequences of global change in biotic interactions
• Population responses to global change

AGCM is by invitation only regarding speakers; however participants are invited to submit a proposal for posters.

Poster submission deadline: 17 July 2013
Registration Deadline: 6 September 2013

For more information visit the AGCM website: http://ebdecogenes.ebd.csic.es

The "ICT 2013 – Create, Connect, Grow" will take place on 6-8 November, 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The event will bring together more than 4000 researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, industry representatives, young people and politicians. The focus of ICT 2013 will be placed on Horizon 2020 - the EU's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for 2014-2020. The event will feature top ICT professionals from industry, academia, research, participating in discussions built around 3 thematic plenaries: ICT for Excellent science; ICT for Industrial Leadership; and ICT for Societal challenges. Experts will present details on how to participate in Horizon 2020. A special focus will be placed on Digital Futures - a journey into 2050's futures and policy challenges.

Apart from the conference the ICT 2013 will also feature an exhibition as a unique opportunity for projects and companies to showcase their research, ICT products and innovative creations. In total, 185 projects will showcase the latest findings in advanced research, technologies, new systems, innovation in services & business and ICT products just coming to market.

In addition networking sessions and investment forum are also planned within the event. ICT 2013 is also organizing activities for students and young researchers

For more information and to register visit: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-2013

Continuing the successful mission of previous MTSR Conferences (MTSR'05, MTSR'07, MTSR'09, MTSR'10, MTSR'11 and MTSR’12), the seventh International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR'13) aims to bring together scholars and practitioners that share a common interest in the interdisciplinary field of metadata, linked data and ontologies. Participants will share novel knowledge and best practice in the implementation of these semantic technologies across diverse types of Information Environments and applications. These include Cultural Informatics; Open Access Repositories & Digital Libraries; E-learning applications; Search Engine Optimisation & Information Retrieval; Research Information Systems and Infrastructures; e-Science and e-Social Science applications; Agriculture, Food and Environment; Bio-Health & Medical Information Systems. 

he ASEAN-EU Science, Technology and Innovation Days serve as a visible forum for cooperation activities between the two regions in the field of STI. The event addresses researchers from most thematic areas – with a focus on the societal challenges with relevance to both regions – as well policy makers, research conducting companies and innovation managers. It takes place annually, alternating between an ASEAN and a European country. High-level policy makers as well as many research projects and companies seize the chance to network, discuss, exchange and inform themselves.

EU BON is also going to hold a workshop during the conference  called "Integration of biodiversity data recording and information management systems for environmental sustainability: a call for EU-ASEAN collaboration" (22nd January). The agenda of this workshop (incl. invited speakers) ican also be found here: http://www.stidays.net/?page_id=510

After a successful networking session in Bangkok, Thailand the SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN project is organising another networking session for interested institutions and research projects in Brussels, Belgium. The event will take place on 28 March 2014 in Brussels, Belgium.This meeting is helpful if you

• want to get to know and network with fellow environment research projects (in the areas of climate change, resource efficiency and raw materials) with an ASEAN focus and/or relevant research results for the region
• want to identify and harness synergies with other projects (possible future cooperation; sharing of results and work, etc.)
• want to get in touch with the SUSTAIN team, communicating what kind of support your research efforts would benefit from

The SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN project generally has to offer

• networking and project twinning support: find and coordinate with similar projects!
• R&D services for results take-up: get support in approaching potential investors!
• communication and exposure support: make your results visible for potential users!

Get in touch here, if you are interested in joining the meeting. The pre-meeting agenda is available as an attachment below,

Read more about the event on the SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN website.

The 2^nd International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI 2014) will take place from 2-4 April 2014 in Athens, Greece.ICRI 2014 will be held under the auspices of the forthcoming Greek Presidency of the European Union, co-organised and supported by the European Commission. Read more here

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 first Group on Earth Observations GEO Appathon 2014, an exciting new worldwide data science competition, is announced to be be launched on 7 May 2014. 

he GEO Appathon is a global applications (App) development competition that aims to develop new, exciting and - most importantly - useful Apps using Earth observation data from the open and expansive Earth Observation data sets in the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI). See www.geoportal.org

The Appathon kicks off on 7 May 2014 and runs until 31 August 2014. Participation is open to any non-commercial entity, individual or team from any background in any country. Apps can be created for any of the main operating systems, and can be designed for any type of portable device. All Apps will be judged and the top three winners will receive a cash prize and a year-long GEO network endorsement and publicity for the App. 

Visit our GEO Appathon website (www.geoappathon.org) for more rules, details of how to register and information about how you can help us unleash the power of Earth observation data.

For further questions, please do not hesitate to email Dan Williams at: dan@geoappathon.org

The international Conference will explore the potential of earth observations and thrust climate information transfer from the science to the stakeholder application realm, in order to develop suitable adaptation measures at national and regional levels. It will identify best adaptation programs and approaches to global environmental change in Mediterranean-climate cities. It will enhance and strengthen European and international cooperation in the context of the activities within the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and promote tools and options for adaptation strategies. The Conference will help local and regional authorities and stakeholders to gain insight on the role of EO-based services in adapting to climate chance impacts in urban hot- spot areas. The Conference will be followed for one and a half day by the 8th GEO European Project Workshop which will be the opportunity to present concrete examples of Earth Observation activities relevant to adaptation strategies.

Information and registration: www.mariolopoulosfoundation.gr/medcity2014

The European Commission announces the 8th GEO European Projects Workshop (GEPW-8) which will take place in Athens, Greece, on 12 and 13 June, hosted by the Greek GEO Office - National Observatory of Athens and co-organized by the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences.

The eighth of the annual series of GEO European Projects Workshops is intended to bring all those interested in and actively contributing to the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS) from all over Europe together, in order to present their work and discuss how Europe can contribute to this international effort, especially in the wake of the launch of the new EU Framework Programme for Research, Horizon 2020, and renewal of the mandate of GEO for another 10 years through the endorsement of the 2014 Geneva Declaration.

Registration:

Registration is already open since 20th of March at the GEPW8 website.
Registration for attendance deadline: May 23, 2014
Registration of presentation deadline: April 30, 2014. Application form will be available at GEPW8 website.

For more information please visit the event's website at: www.gepw8.noa.gr 

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.

• Meet and get to know fellow projects working on similar topics of relevance to ASEAN
• Discuss results and synergies, exchange on methodologies, plan for joint events, applications, publications, etc. or simply see what's going on in the other region in this topic.
• Plan concrete next joint steps with projects in the cluster.
• Benefit from SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN support (e.g. in your dissemination, exploitation and development activities) and inputs (on the funding environment)
• Share your views on thematic gaps in current research - SUSTAIN is mandated to carry the message to the European Commission

• Analyze the objectives and priorities of the media;
• Define a storyline and create persuasive and innovative messages;
• Improve skills in presenting to large audiences;
• Gain control of interviews with journalists using effective verbal skills;
• Manage energy and project confidence in interviews with journalists.

Read more in the Draft agenda below.

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a course in Philosophy of Biological Systematics 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 8-12 September 2014.

Deadline for registration: 16 June 2014, extended until Friday 20 June 2014. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/philosophy-biological-systematics

Approaching the subject from the perspective of the philosophical foundations of scientific inquiry, this course offers critical examinations of the principles required to judge the scientific merits of systematic/taxonomic procedures by way of the following topics:

• The goal of science
• The goal of biological systematics
• Causal relationships in systematics
• The nature of why-questions
• Three forms of reasoning: deduction, induction, abduction
• The uses of deduction, induction, and abduction in science
• Evidence and reasoning
• Fact, theory & hypothesis
• Theory & hypothesis testing
• Systematics involves abductive reasoning
• Inferences of systematics hypotheses, i.e. taxa
• Implications for ‘phylogenetic’ methods
• Causal explanations, not ‘trees’ or cladograms
• Parsimony, likelihood, Bayesianism: are they relevant to abductive reasoning, thus phylogenetic inference?
• The requirement of total evidence
• The errors of cladogram comparisons & character mapping
• Homology, homogeny & homoplasy
• Character coding
• Mechanics of hypothesis testing: implications for cladograms
• Character data cannot test phylogenetic hypotheses
• The nature evidential support
• The proper testing of phylogenetic hypotheses
• The myths of bootstrap, jack-knife & Bremer ‘support’
• Implications for nomenclature
• Defining biodiversity and conservation

Participants will be provided reprints covering the topics in the course, as well as a PDF file with all course slides (>800) and associated notes.

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a Zoological 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 5 days and will take place between 22-26 September 2014 at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.

Deadline for registration: 16 June 2014, extended until Friday 20 June 2014. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/zoological-nomenclature-3

Course description:
Taxonomists need a common language worldwide. This is provided by the international codes of nomenclature. Although several codes exist, according to the organisms at stake, they all follow a similar mode of allocation of names to taxa (through "types") and of establishment of the valid name for a taxon (priority, first-reviser, usage). As biological nomenclature is rarely taught in academic formations, many taxonomists have difficulties mastering it. This training will provide an overview of the history and epistemology of biological nomenclature, and a discussion of the relationships between phylogeny, taxonomy and nomenclature. The zoological code will be presented in detail, the other codes (including the botanical one) more briefly. The recent problems and projects of nomenclature, including alternative systems, will be discussed.

Lecture topics:

• What is taxonomy? What is nomenclature? Name, taxon, nomenclatural rank, taxonomic category. Species and supraspecific taxa. The relationships between phylogeny, taxonomy and nomenclature
• History and epistemology of the international codes of nomenclature
• The international code of zoological nomenclature
• The other international codes (plants and fungi, bacteria, viruses, cultivated plants)
• The alternative nomenclatural systems

Seminar topics:

• Nomenclature of higher taxa in zoology
• The Phylocode and other phylogenetic nomenclatural systems
• Zoobank and electronic publications

Practical experiences will include: exercises in zoological nomenclature and transforming phylogenetic data into a taxonomy and a nomenclature.

The Creative-B project final even will take place on 26 Sep 2014 in Brussels. During this event, a roadmap of global data infrastructures supporting biodiversity and ecosystem research will be presented.

In the last two decades quite a number of activities emerged to manage, share and deploy the fast growing data volumes from observations, collections, sensors and other data sources in biodiversity and ecosystem research. This data "gravity" pushed new applications and services, resulting in the development and establishment of large-scale research infrastructures. Following an initiative of the European LifeWatch research infrastructure, a number of large-scale data research infrastructures* with a global outreach in this scientific area teamed together in the project Creative-B (Coordination of Research e-Infrastructures Activities Toward an International Virtual Environment for Biodiversity)**.

The collaboration resulted in drafting a global Roadmap focusing on common priorities and infrastructure engagement, enhancing infrastructure interoperability, and the legal and governance implications. Specific issues are addressing challenges to sustain data availability and services, user interaction and value delivery, cooperation for infrastructure interoperability as well as legal interoperability, and finally education and training. This Roadmap shows how global interaction is promoting complementary development while fostering synergy for supporting frontier research and addressing global and societal challenges. The event in Brussels will also highlight some implications for other stakeholders such as funding and governmental bodies.

Registration is now open here: http://creative-b-2014.sciencesconf.org/registration

Find out more on the event website, and in the event program.

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.

European Geosciences Union
General Assembly 2015
Vienna | Austria | 12 – 17 April 2015

http://www.egu2015.eu/home.html

One Workshop partiicluarly relevant for EU BON: ESSI2.17 Aggregation, consolidation and coordination of Earth observation networks. Harmonization and gaps

Convener: Joan Masó
Co-Convener: Ivette Serral

Abstract
We are investing in many efforts in creating pan-European or global EO thematic networks but are managed independently and coordination between them is limited. Europe is investing in the Sentinel constellation an at the same time, several initiatives are setting out to create, maintain and operationalize networks of in-situ sensors. These observation networks are usually conceived with a specific purpose in mind (e.g., air quality monitoring in the main cities or coastal water contamination), and they often lack a general coverage, are scattered irregularly in the territory, and sometimes are removed when the measurement campaign ends. There is a need for integrating systems and coordinating them more efficiently, explore synergies and make progress in harmonized and extend them.
Some initiatives aim to coordinate several themes into a single observation set. This is the case of the Critical Zone Exploration (the Earth’s outer layer from vegetation canopy to the soil and groundwater that sustains human life). The CZEN (Critical Zone Exploration Network; http://www.czen.org) is a network of field sites investigating processes within the Critical Zone.

This session is asking for presentations on the coordination between observation network examples and solutions to overcome technical and political barriers that help to reduce the cost and increase value by combining and sharing structures. Papers discussing gaps or redundancies in the current Earth observation networks are also welcome.

http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/session/18560

There is a world of tools, standards and data out there, ready for you to use. Biodiversity Informatics deals with the application of informatics techniques to biodiversity information for improved management, presentation, discovery, exploration and analysis of scientific data. Combined with open data sources on the Internet, this is a powerful new approach in doing research. During this conference, organised by the Belgian Biodiversity Platform and several key institutes, we would like to take you on a trip to the world of biodiversity informatics & open data. After this conference a series of related workshops will be organized.

The 9th GEO European Projects Workshop will take place on 15 and 16 June 2015 in Copenhagen, co-organised by the Danish Meteorological Institute, the European Commission and the European Environment Agency.

The objective of the GEO European Projects Workshop is to bring together European players interested in and actively contributing to the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS). The aim is to enable participants to present their work and discuss how Europe can contribute to this international effort. Its timing has been set to maximise early insight and awareness of the new Implementation plan for the next decade of GEO as well as input to and awareness of Horizon 2020 work programme for 2016 and 2017.

Building on the experience from previous GEO European Projects Workshops, it is intended to continue working towards greater involvement of the European private sector, especially SMEs, in GEO.  The workshop will also focus on user engagement, and the priorities for future flagship initiatives, foreseen to be strengthened in the next phase of GEO, in order to fulfil GEO's ambition to provide information for decision making.

While registration is now closed, due to demand the event will be recorded and streamed live on  http://stream.dvc.dk/9thgeo/ 

More information available on the official event page: http://geo.pbe.eionet.europa.eu/

The 13th European Ecological Federation (EEF) and 25th Italian Society of Ecology’s (S.It.E.) joint conference will take place in Rome from 21st - 25th September 2015.  

"Ecology at the Interface" focuses on interactions at all biological levels, from membrane exchanges to food web dynamics, in addition to physical ecotones, from deep sediment-bottom water to land-atmosphere, and disciplinary ecotones linking ecology to sociology, economics, law, technology and other fields of knowledge concerning daily human life.

For 5 full days the conference expects about 1500 participants from all over Europe, proposing a rich programme articulated in a number of plenary and contributed sessions, symposia, workshops andround tables.      

Deadlines for symposia and workshop proposals and abstract submission are available here and the first circular here.  

The proposed venue is the Congress Centre of Rome - EUR.

You can download the full brochure here.

For more information visit the official conference website.

The Eye on Earth Summit 2015 is the foremost gathering of global thought leaders from government, the private sector, academia and civil society, all committed to filling the economic, social and environmental data gap to inform and improve decision-making for sustainable development. The event will take place from 6 to 8 October 2015 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Attendees will learn about the pioneering work of the Eye on Earth movement and network with a growing body of like-minded experts and influencers to revolutionise the way we collect, access and use data for positive change. Join the Eye on Earth community, create opportunities for future action and share your knowledge. Make a difference to current and future generations.

For more information on the event and registration. please visit: http://www.eoesummit.org/

The Europena Conference "Nature-based Solutions to Climate Change  in Urban Areas and their Rural Surroundings: Linkages between science, policy and practice" will take place from 17 to 19 November 2015 in Bonn, Germany.

The event is a joint European Conference held by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies (ENCA) in co-operation with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) / German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).

Climate change has significant impact on society and biodiversity in Europe. Urban inhabitants are most likely to experience climate change effects directly because currently 73 per cent of Europeans live in urban areas. Here, management of urban ecosystems offer sustainable and cost-effective solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation while contributing to human well-being.

This European conference will bring together experts from science, policy and practice to highlight and debate the importance of nature-based solutions to climate change in urban areas and their rural surroundings. Emphasize is given to the potential of nature-based approaches to create multiple-benefits.

The conference is divided into three main areas (day 1: science, day 2: practice and implementation, day 3: policy and business), each of which will be opened by keynote speakers including:

• Hans Bruyninckx (Executive Director European Environmental Agency, EEA)
• Wilhelm Krull (Chair of the H2020 expert group on nature-based solutions and re-naturing cities, Secretary General Volkswagen Foundation)
• Georgina Mace (University College London – UCL, Director of Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research)
• Christine Wamsler (Lund University, Centre for Sustainability Studies)
• Nataša Jazbinšek (Head of Department for Environmental Protection City of Ljubljana and Head of working group for European Green Capital programme 2016)
• Wolfgang Teubner (ICLEI Regional Director for Europe)
• Kurt Vandenberghe (Director for Climate action and resource efficiency at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation)
• Chantal van Ham (IUCN – EU Programme Manager Nature Based Solutions)
• Dirk Sijmons (Delft University of Technology)

Keynote speeches are complemented by plenary presentations given by leading experts in the fields of urban biodiversity, climate change, and socio-economic effects of nature-based solutions, interactive sessions and a poster exhibition.

Deadline for abstract submission is 24 July 2015 (abstract submission guidelines)

Registration:

Early bird registration deadline: 18 September 2015

Final registration deadline: 30 October 2015

For more information and to register please visit: http://www.ecbcc2015.com/

European Geosciences Union, General assembly: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Climatic Change Research and Assessment will take place in Vienna from 17 to 22 April 2016.

Adequate response to the challenges associated with climate change requires new formats of scientific research and assessment. In the past, linear approaches, starting from the recognition of climate change, through the analysis of observed or expected impacts and ending with policy recommendations, have been the mainstream. It is now widely recognised that these approaches mostly fail to reach their objectives since they do not account for feedbacks between the physical environment and societal action, nor for the feedbacks in the various subsystems. The objective of this session is to review and discuss the problem of climatic change in all its dimensions, with a special focus on interdisciplinary approaches. Climate change science concerns a number of disciplines, such as physics, biology, economics, social sciences etc. It is essential that new forms for interact between disciplines are found in order to produce innovative results.

We do not expect to cover all the aspects of the climate change science but we hope that as well researchers in physical and natural sciences than researchers in social sciences will find interest to participate at the session to present and discuss a few exciting issues within one of several of these scopes (and more):

- The link between global climate scenarios and the socio-economic developments

- Scenarios for impact studies: from global to local

- Climate services: the relation between scientists and stakeholders

- Ecosystem services: outputs from ecosystems, challenges and responses

- Climate – societal interactions in the last millennia: can we learn from past experience?

- Socio-ecosystems, towards a comprehensive approach to sustainability Science

- The climate change policies to mitigate climatic change

- Climatic change and biodiversity

- How to couple physical, ecological and socio-economic models

- Peoples' perception of risk, how to improve communication

- Sea level change and the problems of low lying areas.

Information: http://egu2016.eu/information/general_information.html

The call for abstracts for the EGU 2016 General Assembly is now open: make sure to submit your abstract by 13 January 2016, 13:00 CET. If you would like to apply for funding from the EGU to attend, please submit your abstract within the next few days, by 1 December. This month the EGU has also open a call for proposals for EGU 2016 co-sponsored meetings and has announced a new grant scheme for EGU members interested in developing an outreach and public engagement project.       

The ASEAN-EU STI Days 2016 will be organised in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 10-12 May, 2016. This year’s edition of the event will focus on presenting academic/industry collaborations in and between ASEAN and the EU in the context of common key societal challenges for both regions.

The ASEAN-EU Science, Technology and Innovation Days are a forum style event, initiated by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme funded SEA-EU-NET II project. 

For more information and to register, please go to: http://www.stidays.net

Representatives from science, business and public administration are invited to join the 2016 GEO Workshop for European projects on earth observation from 31 May to 2 June in Berlin.

2016 marks a turning point for the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) with the launch of the new Stategic Plan implementing the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS). Now in its 10th edition, the GEO European Projects Workshop 2016 will present and discuss European initiatives contributing to GEOSS.

The conference is jointly organised by the European Commission, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure of Germany, and the Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science.

For further information on the event (programme, registration, practical information) and most recent updates, please regularly check: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/geo-european-projects-workshop-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.

Theme:  FishBase and SeaLifeBase: a diversity of uses for biodiversity studies  

Date:      September 9, 2016

Venue:   Amphitheatre Rouelle, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Paris

See tentative program/agenda below..

Open to all interested. If you wish to attend this event, contact:

Patrice Pruvost
Chargé de conservation d'ichtyologie
UMR Borea-7208
Département milieux et peuplements aquatiques
Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN)
CP26 - 43 rue cuvier
tel : 33 1 40 79 37 60
fax : 33 1 40 79 37 71
75005 Paris
E-mail: pruvost@mnhn.fr

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.

The next International Conference on Research Infrastructures will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3 to 5 October 2016, hosted by the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) in collaboration with the European Commission. It will be the 3rd Conference on Research Infrastructures and the event will have an international dimension. The conference aims at:

• highlighting the essential role of global research infrastructures in addressing grand challenges and as hubs for innovation;
• reflecting on needs, development and sustainability of global/regional research infrastructures;
• discussing the possibility to move towards an international roadmap.

Several hundreds of participants from more than 50 countries are expected to take part to this event. Speakers representing high-level stakeholders from across the globe, as well as highly profiled key political Institutions, including the UN, European Commission, African Union, OECD and others, will intervene in the debate.

More information to follow.

The "European Conference of Tropical Ecology" - the annual scientific meeting of the Society for Tropical Ecology (Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie, gtö) - will be organized in 2017 in Brussels, Belgium, by three Universities and three research-museum institutions. It will take place from Monday 6 to Friday 10 February 2017, on the campus "Etterbeek" from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a location easily reached from the city centre by public transport. 

The overarching topic will be "(re)connecting tropical biodiversity in space and time". It highlights both the importance of integrating fundamental sciences inferring past processes (e.g. paleoecology, evolution, social history…) to understand current patterns of biodiversity, and the urgent need to reconnect patches of fragmented landscapes if we wish to conserve tropical biodiversity and ecological services of tropical ecosystems for future generations.

For more information and to register, please visit the official event's page: http://www.soctropecol-2017.eu/  

BIOTALENT is a multilingual blended e-learning training programme to gain crucial skills and knowledge in biodiversity. Protecting life on earth in all its forms also involves introducing innovative ways to address pressing environmental issues of today. A strong investment in environmental education and a passion for science is therefore essential to this programme.

This one-day event, Taking place on 18 May 2017, in Brussels, will illustrate the uniqueness of the BIOTALENT project and programme in the way environmental education is brought to the course participant. The various expert speakers that are invited are all very passionate about innovation in education and the new ways in which scientific and environmental education can contribute to conserving biodiversity.  

To register and find out more visit the official announcement.

The 11th GEO European Projects Workshop will take place in Helsinki between 19-21 June 2017.  

The purpose of the conference is to bring together European stakeholders interested in and actively contributing to the Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS). The event is a forum to exchange ideas and inform participants about work and initiatives undertaken in the context of GEOSS. 

The conference is organised by the European Commission and Finish Meteorological Institute. 

More information to come at: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/11th-geo-european-projects-workshop-2017

The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982). David’s health situation has made it difficult for our household to maintain this blog. We don’t want it to fade away, though, so we’ve decided to select previous entries from our backlist to republish. These are items that chime with current developments or that we think might languish […]

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