Work Packages
Catalogue of Services
Lead: UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA
WP1 focuses on assessing and enhancing existing services to meet the demands of researchers and individuals seeking to address challenges related to climate change. It aims to create an integrated catalogue of services, analyze gaps, and develop strategies for sustainability, ultimately supporting interdisciplinary research efforts to understand and mitigate the impacts of climate change on the biosphere.
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Microbial single-cell genomic analyses: customisation of innovative services
Lead: UNIVERSITÉ DE RENNES
WP2 aims to enhance understanding of soil and plant microbiomes as holobionts through genomic analysis, linking microbial diversity to functions, identifying genetic variations, and characterizing ‘healthy’ microbial communities to address climate change stressors, organized into two tasks focusing on optimizing existing services and fostering international research collaborations for innovative use cases.
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Establishment and validation of synthetic microbial communities
Lead: AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
WP3 aims to establish a standardized workflow for creating synthetic microbial communities from soil and plant samples to support vulnerable terrestrial ecosystems affected by climate change, focusing on sampling, isolating, characterizing microorganisms, assessing microbiome diversity, and validating synthetic communities for future research and applications, with tasks including sampling strategy establishment, microorganism isolation and characterization, bioinformatic analysis, and testing SMCs’ protective effects on plants against climate-induced stresses.
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TA/VA4 – Transnational and Virtual Access Programme
Lead: UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
WP4 aims to offer simplified and harmonized access to customized services, both in-person and virtually, for curiosity-driven research on climate change risks to terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems, encompassing fields such as microbial resources, plant sciences, agriculture, forestry, climate, environment, biodiversity, and data science, providing integrated and joint services across research infrastructures.
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Data management and access
Lead: LifeWatch ERIC
WP5 aims to establish a project data architecture and information technology infrastructure, integrating data sources via an ontology, utilizing distributed IT infrastructure for sustainable data management, and implementing user-friendly interfaces and advanced semantic search functionality to enhance effectiveness and timeliness of data management.
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Legal, regulatory, ethical, and intellectual property affairs
Lead: CABI
This work package aims to assess current laws and regulations governing culture collections and microorganisms, focusing on their applicability to complex environmental samples, such as those relevant for understanding climate change impacts and mitigation strategies, identifying gaps, engaging stakeholders for proposed solutions, and reviewing quality management and ethical approaches to ensure alignment with best practices.
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Community building, training, and user engagement
Lead: AnaEE-ERIC
WP7 is tasked with coordinating the training of platform managers, engaging users, and fostering community building to ensure a participatory approach across all project activities, establish connections with existing initiatives and communities related to ecosystem and biodiversity studies, and provide a standardized methodology and guidance for joint training activities within research infrastructures.
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Increasing visibility and outreach
Lead: SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INOVAÇÃO
WP8 aims to implement outreach and visibility actions to promote the service offerings of MICROBES-4-CLIMATE, including the development of a communication strategy, enhancing access to the Transnational Access (TNA) program, and fostering European and international cooperation through various online and in-person initiatives and events.
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Project Management and Ethics
Lead: MIRRI-ERIC
WP9 oversees and manages all aspects necessary for the smooth execution of project activities, including project coordination, administrative support, quality assurance, ethics management, data management, risk management, and communication, ensuring efficient and timely implementation through a structured governance system.
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Project Steering Committee
The Scientific Steering Committee is composed of the Work Package Leaders and the Project Coordinator (Ana Portugal Melo, MIRRI-ERIC)

WP1
Aurora Zuzuarregui & Rosa Aznar
UVEG-CECT

WP2
Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse
UNIV RENNES

WP3
Tanja Kostic
AIT

WP4
Nelson Lima
UMINHO

WP5
Ana Mellado
Lifewatch ERIC

WP6
Matthew Ryan
CABI

WP7
Michel Boër
AnaEE-ERIC

WP8
Francisco Rocha
SPI
