This is the final conference of the LIFE+ EnvEurope project, together with the annual LTER-Europe conference.

In building a site network for biodiversity and ecosystem research since 2004, LTER-Europe has identified a set of requirements in the field of cross-site workflows, network design, tools for information management, harmonization and standardization. The LIFE+ project EnvEurope has successfully tackled these requirements over the past 4 years. The products of EnvEurope and the approaching Horizon 2020 are the entry point for the next phase in designing the European research infrastructure landscape in the field of biodiversity and ecosystem research.

A key challenge for LTER-Europe, with its highly instrumented observational sites and socio-ecological research platforms, is how best to cooperate and integrate with both large scale monitoring schemes (including remote sensing) and experimental approaches. The interaction with key stakeholders at the joint conference in Rome will form a milestone on this way.

Anyone with an interest in LTER-Europe and related infrastructures (both infrastructure managers and scientific users) is welcome in Rome to hear about the science that LTER-Europe helps deliver and to exchange ideas, strengthen interactions, help us identify development priorities and explore possible collaborative projects.