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7.2. ENVIRONMENT

BIOSPHERE, ECOLOGY AND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP

Presentation of the RI group
The ecology and biodiversity research network is primarily concerned with the functioning of ecosystems and the role of
biodiversity. The biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure builds on existing knowledge, which can be effectively
utilised by the internationalisation and further development of databases and knowledge systems. This is why national
commitment and cooperation with ESFRI is necessary and important: the goal corresponds to the objectives of the Life
Watch RI as well as that of the future eLTER RI which will focus on long-term research. DANUBIUS-RI brings together
and develops research infrastructures dealing with European river–sea systems and establises new research centres. The
DANUBIUS-RI physically comprises one HUB (research centre in Romania), nodes (analytical, modelling and moni-
toring centres which may involve several institutions across borders) and super sites (physical research areas focusing on
the better understanding of specific phenomena; Hungary has suggested such a site in the Szigetköz area). Hungary expects
that all members of the network will have access to all shared DANUBIUS-RI resources (infrastructure outside the country,
intellectual property, research capacity, data etc.).
Agricultural activities are closely linked to environmental and ecological issues. Sustainability, biodiversity, climate adap-
tation and food security are central issues to agricultural research. Several analytical and biological research tools can be
used for different purposes (subject to a special sample preparation method). As long as these general tools are relatively
easily accessible, field infrastructure (arable land, barn, monitoring, gene pool, country-wide soil monitoring database) will
be highly appreciated globally due to its time-consuming and cost-intensive nature and uniqueness. For the time being,
Hungary has a major competitive advantage in this area.

National coordinator of the RI group: Background information
HAS Centre for Ecological Research, University of Debrecen MTA ÖK is the coordinator and engine of the RI. In 2015, it established
Contact: András Báldi the Ecological Biodiversity Network with nine partners to support Life-
Email: baldi.andras@okologia.mta.hu Watch (http://www.lifewatch.eu/). They participate in a number of inter-
Website: http://okologia.mta.hu/ national projects and programmes, such as the EU projects Openness,
BioVel, Esmeralda and EcoKarst, and contribute to the work of the IPBES
Partners: intergovernmental platform. DANUBIUS has 29 international and 4 Hun-
LifeWatch: MTA ÖK; NAIK; MME; Ministry of Rural Devel- garian partners (http://www.danubius-ri.eu/). However, only SZE is a con-
opment; DE TTK; SZTE, SE; MTA ÖK; Directorate of the tracted partner of the international consortium.
Őrség National Park.
Danubius: SZE; MTA ÖK; ELTE TTK Institute of Geography Aim of the RI group
and Earth Sciences; MTA CSFK The most important task is to formally join the infrastructures. Therefore,
a decision must be made on joining the LifeWatch ERIC, and Hungary
ESFRI connection: DANUBIUS-RI; pre-implementation stage should take part in the preparatory work of eLTER which is expected to be
(mapping of potential connections with the LifeWatch ERIC; included in the ESFRI Roadmap. Focus should be on participation in
assessment of potential Hungarian participation in eLTER which database development and data processing tasks and in joint research pro-
is currently competing for being included in the ESFRI grammes. An important aim of the further development of the RI group is
Roadmap.) to strengthen the researcher potential in the entire RI group to ensure that
the domestic research communities (e.g. MTA ÖK EcoInfLab) have access
Status of the RI group: operating network to a wide range of international research data and databases. The long-term
ecological field research network operated by the RI is one of the oldest in
Europe, with major achievements both in experimental ecological research
and in socio-ecological interdisciplinary topics.

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