European infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research
About LifeWatch
LifeWatch is a Research Infrastructure set up to support the fields of ecosystems research and biodiversity by equipping scientists with access to data, analytical tools and state-of-the-art virtual laboratories.
The challenge
Developing the LifeWatch objectives requires a close collaboration between the scientific groups leading the development of digital tools and IT experts that can advise on the best technologies to carry out the vision.
These tools will allow for new avenues of research, but they also come with a high demand for computational resources.
EGI-LifeWatch collaboration
The LifeWatch partnered with EGI through an EGI-Engage Competence Centre (CC) to:
- deploy the basic tools required to support data management, data processing and modelling for ecological observatories
- evaluate the services required to support workflows for the deployment of virtual labs
- and support the participation of citizens in LifeWatch’s observation records, e.g. in uploading and processing of images.
The work led to a total of seven LifeWatch services for data management and modelling currently in production using the computational resources of the EGI Federated Cloud.
