The LifeWatch ERIC Help Desk is at your disposal to support you in the use of our platforms and services.
The LifeWatch ERIC Help Desk applies a ticket system to address all support requests.
A unique number is assigned to each request, and you can refer to it to track its progress.
Check our knowledge base to see if the issue you wish to raise has already been addressed. All topics are listed on the left-hand side column; select one to see the list of items associated with it. A search field is at your disposal to easily query the knowledge base.
If you cannot find what you are looking for, you can open a new ticket. Please note that you must be registered and logged in to do so.
If you have any issue during the reset password procedure, please send an email to service.centre@lifewatch.eu.
- Member States of the European Union;
- Associated Countries;
- Other Third Countries;
- Intergovernmental Organisations.
Research Infrastructures are facilities, resources and services that are used by research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields.
They include: major scientific equipment (or sets of instruments), knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives and scientific data, e-Infrastructures, such as data and computing systems and communication networks, and any other tools that are essential to achieve excellence in research and innovation.
The European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a specific legal form that facilitates the establishment and operation of Research Infrastructures with European interest. Advantages:
- A legal capacity recognised in all EU countries;
- Flexibility to adapt to specific requirements of each infrastructure;
- A faster process than creating an international organisation;
- Exemptions from VAT and excise duty.
- Establishes and operates the infrastructure and information systems necessary to mobilise and integrate data and algorithms for biodiversity and ecosystem research, including enhancing understanding, linkages and synergies with other societal challenges such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, and to provide analytical capabilities;
- Provides access to data collected by science at a global level and offers ICT services, tools, storage capacity and computational power, to transform information into new knowledge;
- Connects and brings together physical observatories, research centres and scientific communities into a single web space accessible to all; in doing so
- Offers researchers and stakeholders wherever they are, regardless of their access to funding and facilities, the resources to enact their own innovative scientific approach; and
- Empowers citizens to engage with science and contribute to their own well-being and survival.
The core structural components are the three Common Facilities, serving the entire ERIC and responsible for the implementation, coordination and management of all activities:
- Statutory Seat and ICT e-Infrastructure Technical Office (SSO, ICT-Core), Seville, Spain;
- Service Centre (SC), Lecce, Italy;
- Virtual Lab and Innovation Centre (VLIC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Distributed Centres are facilities that are hosted by Member States, and coordinate national contributions to the consortium.
- Participate and vote in the General Assembly (contributing to the definition of strategic objectives and implementation plans);
- Access information and services provided by LifeWatch ERIC;
- Benefit from any other rights mentioned in the Statutes or included in the Implementing Rules.
Observers have the right to:
- Attend the General Assembly without any voting
- Let their research communities participate in LifeWatch ERIC events, such as workshops, conferences, training courses at preferential rates, space permitting;
- Let their research communities have access to support from LifeWatch ERIC in developing relevant systems, processes and services.
- Be part of a highly specialised European Research Infrastructure Consortium;
- Aggregate and organise national scientific communities working on biodiversity and ecosystems, maximising their visibility and impact;
- Use the LifeWatch ERIC brand to promote national outcomes and initiatives;
- Be included in European and national roadmaps and Smart Specialisation Strategies;
- Have access to dedicated European, national and regional programmes and funding schemes;
- Have access to technology, innovation and knowledge through collaboration on the development and operation of the e-Infrastructure.
- Support and facilitate the objectives, tasks and governance of LifeWatch ERIC;
- Identify a representing entity and maintain a National LifeWatch Support Committee to promote adoption of relevant standards in national resources and tools creation projects;
- Promote the uptake of services among scientific communities and researchers of different biodiversity-related areas of knowledge, including ecosystem science and bioinformatics, and gather providers’ and users’ input and feedback;
- Commit financially towards a common budget: In Cash Contribution (15%) and In Kind Contribution (85%) (see Annex 2);
- Support any other activity agreed within the framework of LifeWatch ERIC resulting from the Statutes or Implementing Rules;
- Maintain their membership until the end of the five-year period in force at the moment of their accession.
Observers do not have any financial commitment.
Pending: this status will be automatically assigned to the abstract after the submission and will be used by the Reviewer every time they will add a note to ask for a correction or a change within the submission. The status “Pending” allows the Submitter to modify the abstract if needed.
Under review: this status will be used by the Reviewer when they are working on the review of the abstract assigned to them. The status “Under review” will block the possibility for the Submitter to modify the abstract.
Accepted: this status will be used when the review is over and the abstract is accepted
Rejected: this status will be used when the review is over and the abstract is rejected.
Once you have been nominated Reviewer, logging in into your account you will see the list of all the abstracts assigned to you and you can:
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Edit the text and the keywords inside the abstract (only the first time you open it, before changing the status).
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Add a note (asking for any corrections)
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Review the abstract by filling in the following options
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Relevance (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor);
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Quality (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor);
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Modify Type (selecting one of the available options)
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Modify status (Pending, Under review, Accepted, Rejected).
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When an abstract is assigned to you for the review you will find it in your dashboard and you can start the review by clicking on the “review” link.
During the reviewing period the status of the abstract must be moved from “Pending” to “Under review” in order to avoid any modification from the Submitter during this phase.
If any modification is needed you can write a comment in the review comment text-box and change the status from “Under review” to “Pending”. The change of the status allows the Submitter to make the modification required.
When the review is completed you can change the status of the abstract from “Under review” to “accepted/rejected”
Yes, Submitters must have an account and login to access the LifeWatch ERIC Community platforms in order to submit an abstract.
If you don’t have an account, but you want to join our community, you can find the registration link on the login page. Click on “Don’t have an account? Register with us” to sign up and customise your profile.
The Submitter is the person who submits one or more abstracts to the conference after registering to the Community platform.
The submission of an abstract is done through the conference abstract submission page. The person submitting an abstract may not be one of the authors, or the one presenting the abstract during the conference.
In order to submit an abstract, a call for abstracts must first be activated and launched. The link for abstract submission will be added on the conference website and on the main menu of the Community platform , e.g. on a “Abstract Submission” page.
To submit an abstract to a conference, you must register on the Community platform, create your profile and activate your account. After logging in, you will be redirected to your personal area where you can click on “+ New Abstract” and fill in the form to submit your abstract.
The Presenter is the person who will present the abstract during the conference, using one of the options provided by the Scientific Committee (i.e. Oral communication / Poster), pending confirmation from the reviewer.
Presenter can be different from Authors and must be indicated during the abstract submission phase inside the “Presenter Information” box. Only one Presenter can be assigned to each abstract.
Please note that this information will appear as it is inputted on the Abstract Book.
Abstract submission might fail if:
1) The Submitter has not properly registered to the LifeWatch ERIC Community Platform
Check the instructions on how to sign up to the LifeWatch ERIC Community inside our Help Desk under the topic Community Platform – My Account: “How do I sign up to the LifeWatch ERIC Community?”. Here the direct link to this resource.
2) There are some missing fields on the Abstract Submission Form.
All the fields of the Abstract Submission Form are mandatory! If you miss any field of the form, after clicking on the “Submit” button you will see a popup message appearing on the screen indicating the missing fields highlighted in red.
Here is a recap of all the mandatory fields:
Title: The title of your abstract.
Text: The main content of your abstract, please note that the max. number of words allowed is indicated on the count down below the text box.
Keywords: The main topics associated to your abstract, place them separated by comma.
Topic: The topic that better fits your abstract content. This often corresponds to conference sessions and can be selected from the drop down menu on the left hand side.
Author information: All details concerning the author(s) of the abstract, including name/last name, email address, affiliation (organisation). For each co-author it is necessary to add the full set of information. In case there is more than one author to be inserted, click on the ‘+’ symbol you see next to the title of the ‘Author information’ section.
Please note that this information will appear as inputted on the Abstract Book.
Presenter information: All details concerning the Presenter of the abstract, including name/last name, email address, preference (to be selected among the options provided by the Scientific Committee). Only one Presenter can be assigned to each abstract, should you need to change their details after the abstract status is switched to “Under review” you have to reach out to the conference contact address.
Please note that this information will appear as inputted on the Abstract Book.
Presenter Preference: A series of predefined options (i.e. poster, oral communication, etc.) are available for your selection in the drop down menu. The Scientific Committee/Reviewer can modify the suggested option.
Terms and condition: Terms and condition checkbox must be ticked. By ticking the checkbox you agree to LifeWatch ERIC’s privacy policy.
When the Abstract submission is done correctly a confirmation email will be automatically sent to the Submitter and to the Admin.
3) The cache of the internet browser used is full and it needs to be cleaned.
If you are still having issues on submitting your abstract but you are logged in on the Community Platform and all the mandatory fields of the Abstract Submission Form are completed, you might need to clean the cache of your internet browser.
Clean the cache of your internet browser and try again or make the submission by using an incognito mode page. If the issue continues try with a totally different internet browser. (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari…)
4) You have exceeded the maximum words allowed for this submission
Please note that if you are copying your abstract from an Open Office document, you will be carrying along special characters and formatting that might have an impact on words count.
Please make sure to use the “Edit” > “Paste and keep style” function of your browser, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows, Linux) or Cmd+Shift+V (Mac), or to clean the text formatting by copying it into a different text editor.
All the fields displayed in the abstract submission form are mandatory.
Title: The title of your abstract.
Text: The main content of your abstract, please note that the max. number of words allowed is indicated on the count down below the text box.
Keywords: The main topics associated to your abstract, place them separated by comma.
Topic: The topic that better fits your abstract content. This often corresponds to conference sessions and can be selected from the drop down menu on the right hand side.
Author information: All details concerning the author(s) of the abstract, including name/last name, email address, affiliation (organisation). For each co-author it is necessary to add the full set of information. Please note that this information will appear as inputted on the Abstract Book.
Presenter information: All details concerning the Presenter of the abstract, including name/last name, email address, preference (to be selected among the options provided by the Scientific Committee). Only one Presenter can be assigned to each abstract, should you need to change their details after the abstract status is switched to “Under review” you have to reach out to the conference contact address. Please note that this information will appear as inputted on the Abstract Book.
Preference: A series of predefined options (i.e. poster, oral communication, etc.) are available for your selection in the drop down menu. The Scientific Committee/Reviewer can modify the suggested option.
Terms and condition: Terms and condition checkbox must be ticked. By ticking the checkbox you agree to LifeWatch ERIC privacy policy.
A first notification email will be sent, as confirmation of the successful submission of your abstract.
A second notification email will be sent, when the assigned Reviewer will take care of your abstract changing the status from “Pending” to “Under review”.
Other notification emails will be received if:
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Any comment is added by the Reviewer and the status is updated from “Under review” to “Pending”;
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The status of your abstract is updated from “Under review” to “Accepted” or “Rejected”.
Pending: this status will be automatically assigned to the abstract after the submission and will be used by the Reviewer every time they will add a note to ask for a correction or a change within the submission. The status “Pending” allows the Submitter to modify the abstract if needed.
Under review: this status will be used by the Reviewer when they are working on the review of the abstract assigned to them. The status “Under review” will block the possibility for the Submitter to modify the abstract.
Accepted: this status will be used when the review is over and the abstract is accepted
Rejected: this status will be used when the review is over and the abstract is rejected.
Whether you provide training opportunities, communicate LifeWatch activities, develop LifeWatch ICT tools for researchers, or if you are a scientist looking for tools to facilitate your research, the Community Platform is the place where you can easily get in touch with others working on the same issues, regardless of their affiliation or location.
You can join and create specific working groups where you can network and find resources within your specific community of interest within the larger LifeWatch ERIC Community.
Using FAQs or brainstorming facilities, you can easily find answers to niche questions. You can also find links to LifeWatch ERIC resources such as the Metadata Catalogue, the Training Catalogue, the Training Platform, or request support through the HelpDesk function.
You can also filter directly for individuals with specific scientific skills by using our tailor-made search tool.
Within Working Groups, you can upload useful resources to the repository, begin discussions on the forum, share an internal calendar, brainstorm together, organise conference calls, respond to polls, populate wikis and read and write blogs.
Please consult the section of the FAQ dedicated to Working Groups for more information.
This will take you to your profile. On the left-hand menu of your profile, there is a section called Settings. Click on Account Settings. Once here you can easily reset your password.
This will take you to your profile. On the left-hand menu of your profile (not the main menu), there is a section called Settings.
Click on Profile Settings. Once here, you will be able to fill in your Personal Information, link your profile to your Social Networks, and upload a Profile Cover and Profile Picture.
These dictate how visible you are to other members of the Community. To change your account privacy settings, you must first click on your account name, which is visible on any page of the website in the top right-hand corner when you are logged in.
This will take you to your profile. On the left-hand menu of your profile (not the main menu), there is a section called Settings. Click on Account Settings. Once here, look again at the left-hand menu and select Account Privacy. Here you can choose how visible your profile is to other members of the Community.
After submitting these details by clicking on the Sign Up button you will receive an email in the inbox of the address you submitted with further instructions.
Please note that by creating an account on LifeWatch ERIC Community, you will also have access to all the services on LifeWatch ERIC website using the same credentials.
You can browse through the available groups. When you see a group that interests you, the way you join depends on the privacy settings of the group. If it is a public group, you can have immediate access by selecting the group and then clicking on the Join Group button.
If it is a private group, you follow the same process, but will subsequently have to wait for the group admin to approve your request. To join a secret group, you must be invited by the group administrator.
Above these on the right-hand side is the blue button Create New Group. Once you have clicked on the button, as well as being asked to type out a group name and description, you will be asked to choose the privacy level of your group: secret, private, or public.
After this stage, you will have to wait for your group to be approved by an administrator.
To personalise your Group Settings, you must head to your profile, which can always be found in the top right-hand corner when you are logged in. Once on your profile, look for the section in the left-hand menu called Group Settings and select Manage Groups and the group you would like to edit.
Once on the Manage Groups page, there are a series of settings you can adjust to your liking, such as the Profile and Cover image of the group. Under Settings, you can change the Group Name, Group Type and Group Description.
To invite Community members to join your group, click on Invite Members and select the desired members before clicking Send Invite. Click on Activity Type to activate the desired functionalities for your group; among the group functionalities fostering your interaction with other group members are the calendar, repository, forum, blog, wiki, polls, brainstorming and conference calls.
Remember to click on Save Changes after selecting your desired functionalities. Finally, you have the option to Delete your group.
You can check out the online version of the full EcoPortal documentation here: https://ontoportal.github.io/documentation/user_guide/EcoPortal.
A PDF version will soon be available.
EcoPortal (https://ecoportal.lifewatch.eu/) is the LifeWatch ERIC repository of semantic resources for ecology and related domains.
It is designed to facilitate the work of researchers in the ecology domain, supporting the community in the creation, management, mapping and alignment of its semantic resources and subsequently also of its data.
You can upload and share your semantic resources, while discovering new insights and knowledge by exploring other semantic resources in the repository; you can map your semantic resources to other relevant ones in the same domain and collaborate with other users; you can describe your semantic resources with relevant metadata and get a FAIR score for them.
Moreover, you can get feedback and suggestions from other users, who can use and comment on their semantic resources.
With the last released version has been introduced the federation feature to OntoPortal. This means that you can now explore ontologies across multiple federated portals using our new federated browsing and search features, enabling seamless access to ontologies from other OntoPortal instances.
This is a joint release with AgroPortal, EarthPortal and BiodivPortal i.e., each portal is now connected to each other and displays some content from the others.
What are the main properties of this federation feature? In a few words: federated documentation, federated categories, federated user interfaces, federated browsing and federated search.
To sign up to EcoPortal, go to https://ecoportal.lifewatch.eu/ and click on the white Login button in the top right-hand corner. Once the login page is loaded, click on the link “Register” in order to create a new account by specifying all your details (name, username, email address and password).
After submitting these details by clicking on the Register button you will receive an email with further instructions.
Please note that by creating an account on EcoPortal, you will also have access to all LifeWatch ERIC services with the same credentials.
In order to publish a semantic artefact, you need to sign up for an account at the EcoPortal website: https://ecoportal.lifewatch.eu/
Once logged in, you can navigate to the Browse page and click the “Submit a semantic artefact” button that will open the form with all required fields.
The FAIRness score is computed by means of the Ontology FAIRness Evaluator (O’FAIRe) tool, a web service that performs an automatic FAIRness evaluation of semantic artefacts by analysing metadata fields associated with specific questions corresponding to each FAIR principle and sub-principle.
The tool automatically executes the tests and evaluates how the semantic artefacts respond to the questions, providing a global normalised FAIR score associated with some basic statistics.
The EcoPortal Metadata Schema is built upon the Metadata Vocabulary for Ontology Description and Publication (MOD 2.0).This comprehensive schema integrates various vocabularies, such as Dublin Core, OMV, DCAT, and VoID, and was introduced by Dutta et al. 2017.
Its primary purpose is to empower ontology developers to annotate and describe their ontologies, while also enabling ontology libraries to provide semantic descriptions of ontologies in the form of linked data.
You can take a look to the full metadata schema in the documentation (https://ontoportal.github.io/documentation/user_guide/EcoPortal).
Please note that by creating an account on LifeWatch ERIC Help Desk, you will also have access to all the services on LifeWatch ERIC website using the same credentials.
If you wish to contribute to the Help Desk as agent, you need to register to the LifeWatch Community, access to your profile, specify your skills and declare that you want to contribute to the Help Desk. The administrator will receive and manage your request.
Once you are logged in to your account, you can open a new ticket by following these steps:
- Click on the ‘Open a new ticket’ button on the Help Desk homepage (below the list of FAQs) or click on “NEW TICKET” in the left side menu;
- Select a Topic from the drop-down menu or create a new one if needed;
- Select a Category among the following ones:
- change: to request any change, modification, or replacement;
- incident: to restore operational efficiency and productivity during unplanned interruptions;
- problem: to report a bug or simple malfunctioning;
- request: to ask for a product/service, new hardware/software, access to tools, password resets, software licenses, etc.;
- other if any of the previous categories apply.
- Insert the Subject of your request;
- Write your request in the text box (you can also add attachments if needed);
- Click the “Create Ticket” button to finalize your request.
* Please note that all the fields in the form are mandatory besides the attachments.
To check the status of your tickets, log in, go to the Help Desk home page, and click My Tickets in the left side menu. From there, you can easily track the progress of your requests.
Ticket status can be:
- Open: A new ticket has been created and is waiting to be assigned to a Help Desk agent;
- Assigned: The ticket has been assigned to an agent who is actively working on a resolution;
- Pending: The ticket is temporarily on hold (e.g., waiting for more information from the user or from other departments);
- Completed: The request has been resolved and the ticket is now closed.
By clicking on the ticket number, you can review the latest updates, reply with additional comments, or close the ticket if your issue has been resolved.
If you want to add and edit your own metadata records, you need to login with your username and password by using several identity providers (e.g., the LifeWatch ERIC Single-Sign-On, Google, ORCID, etc.).
If you want to register, you can click on the Login button placed in the upper right corner and then on the Register link.
Please note that by creating an account on the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue, you will also have access to all the LifeWatch ERIC services and platforms by using the same credentials.
It is operational since 2020 and its main goal is to increase collaboration within and among organisations for reducing duplication and enhancing information consistency and quality and to improve the accessibility of a wide variety of resources along with the associated information, organised and documented in a standard and consistent way.
Moreover, the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue allows (upon validation and verification) the creation of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for resources that do not have it, by exploiting the GeoNetwork – DataCite connection.
It allows to manage metadata related to six kinds of resources: Datasets, Research Site, Services, Training Resources, Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and Workflows.
You can add a new metadata record by navigating to the Contribute menu item and clicking on the Add new record option.
This will open a page where you have to select:
- The type of resource for which you want to create a metadata record;
- The metadata template to be used (the LifeWatch ERIC ones);
- The group under which the metadata record will be published.
After completing this information, you have to click on the Create button. This will open the metadata editor interface, where you can begin documenting your resource by respecting all the standards and validation rules (e.g., mandatory fields, appropriate formats, appropriate values, etc.).
As you complete the metadata fields, the system performs real-time validation to ensure the metadata meets the required standards. If any issues are detected, the system will flag them with warnings or error messages, guiding you to make the necessary corrections.
Once all the fields are completed and validated, you can choose to either save the metadata as a draft or submit it for publication.
Saving as a draft allows you to revisit and edit the record later, while submitting it for publication initiates the review process for approval. Both actions are facilitated by clearly labeled buttons, ensuring an intuitive user experience.
A full report of the LifeWatch ERIC Application Profiles is available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/download/lifewatch-eric-application-profiles/.
A full report of the LifeWatch ERIC Application Profiles is available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/download/lifewatch-eric-application-profiles/.
A full report of the LifeWatch ERIC Application Profiles is available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/download/lifewatch-eric-application-profiles/.
A full report of the LifeWatch ERIC Application Profiles is available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/download/lifewatch-eric-application-profiles/.
A full report of the LifeWatch ERIC Application Profiles is available here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/download/lifewatch-eric-application-profiles/.