Programme

Taru Sandén
AGES, Austria

Säde Virkki
LUKE, Finland

The role of Research Infrastructures (RIs) is to provide services and resources, such as data, modelling, analysis and experimental research, which users can use to find transformative pathways to sustainable agriculture. As networking platforms, RIs promote knowledge exchange and innovation among users, while providing RI services and resources that can be used to advance agroecological practices. This presentation shares a vision for RIs and highlights their role in promoting scientific research and acting as catalysts for changes in agricultural systems. Participants will learn how RIs can contribute to scientific progress and agroecological transition.

Michael Mirtl
eLTER ESFRI Coordination, LTER-Europe Chairperson, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Environment Agency Austria (EAA)

eLTER RI (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone & socio-ecological Research Infrastructure) entered the ESFRI Roadmap in 2018. eLTER RI adopts a fundamentally systemic approach to observe and analyse the human-environmental system, encompassing biological, geological, hydrological and socio-ecological perspectives. It will be the first RI capturing and analysing holistically the compounded impacts of climate change, together with other pressures on a wide variety of European ecosystems including agro-ecosystems. The main building blocks of eLTER RI are: (A) the distributed physical network with a wide scale and systematic coverage of major European terrestrial, freshwater and transitional water ecosystems (ca. 200 eLTER Sites and 50 eLTSER Platforms for socio-ecological and transdisciplinary research at the regional scale); (B) Central Services  provided by the Head Office and thematic Topic Centres. Standard Observations enable research across disciplines. They range from biophysiochemical to biodiversity- and socio-ecological variables. Ecosystem change is caused by long-term pressures and short-term pulses. eLTER investigates both in a nested design from the local to the continental scale and with strong links with other European environmental RIs encouraging, for example, co-location of measurements. International collaboration through the International LTER (ILTER) and the Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) are promoted.

Taru Sandén, AGES, Austria
Carla Brites, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, I. P. (INIAV), Portugal