About eLTER

Establishing the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, Critical Zone & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) as an ESFRI research infrastructure

The pan-European Research Infrastructure eLTER RI (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, Critical Zone & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure, www.elter-europe.net) planned to be operational in 2027 is a distributed infrastructure that has been registered on the ESFRI Road map since 2018. It gathers a network of 34 partners from 24 countries representing a network of Critical zone and socio-ecological research ecosystems. Stakes of its developement is to develop an integrated approach based on the understanding of structure and functions of ecosystems and socioecosystems in response to severe threats to ecosystems dure to environmental, societal and economic presure. In order to answer to these socioenvironmental challenges, services and in-situ facilities will be developed to meet the needs of emerging research challenges in an interdisciplinary approach as well as stakeholders.

With the approval of two projects totalling 14 million euros for eLTER, the eLTER RI is in under a high development phasis. The Preparatory Phase Project, eLTER PPP, coordinated by the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Germany, will further the governance and organisation (legal status, access sites for services, decision-making process, communication, transfer research activities,etc.). Moreover, this phasis includes the process of labelling for Virtual access sites (Virtual Access) in coherence with the FAIR - Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable) or in-situ acess to sites (Transnational Access), basically highly instrumented sites with a wide range of services. The Advance Community Project, eLTER PLUS, coordinated by the University of Helsinki in Finland, is aimed to conduct demonstration services and performance tests to the emerging eLTER RI, challenging, assessing and strenghtening its operations. The project is based on the development of case Studies on four main topics (biodiversity loss, biogeochemical controls for ecosystemic functions, water-climate-food security nexus, socioecological systems).

French and German contributions in the evolution of the pan-European infrastructure eLTER-ESFRI are major and the conference is an opportunity for French and German research networks OZCAR (www.ozcar-ri.org) and Tereno (https://www.tereno.net/) as well as the Zone Ateliers Network (RZA - www.za-inee.org), a French national research infrastructure infrastructure federating socioecological research sites, to highly contribute to the creation of a European space on Critical Zone and socioecosystems.