Category: Partnering scientific projects

Pensoft joins new Horizon Europe project to help tackle terrestrial invasive alien species

Pensoft will play a vital role in public awareness, engagement and promoting effective strategies for monitoring and managing IAS.

The Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) is an invasive alien species for Europe with established populations across the western part of the continent. Photo by Mario Shimbov (Pensoft).

As one of the partners in charge of maximising the project’s impact, Pensoft will work on OneSTOP’s visual branding, communication, dissemination and exploitation, and the development of a data management plan for the project. 

Invasive alien species (IAS) pose one of the most significant threats to global biodiversity, contributing to species extinctions, ecosystem degradation, and economic losses exceeding $400 billion annually. 

To tackle this, the EU enforces Regulation (EU) 1143/2014 and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, aiming to prevent IAS introduction, enhance early detection, and manage their spread. Member States coordinate efforts with scientific support and citizen engagement to minimise their impact and protect Europe’s biodiversity. Addressing this urgent challenge, the EU Horizon project OneSTOP has officially launched as part of a coordinated European effort to combat biological invasions in terrestrial environments.

Comprehensive Approach to Tackling Invasive Alien Species

OneSTOP is one of two ambitious projects funded under the Horizon Europe programme, the other being GuardIAS, which focuses on marine and freshwater habitats. The two collaborative initiatives held their joint official kick-off meeting in January at the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. Together, these projects aim to develop innovative solutions for detecting, preventing, and managing invasive alien species across all ecosystem realms.

Coordinated by Dr Quentin Groom from Meise Botanic Garden, Belgium, and Prof Helen Roy from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, OneSTOP will integrate advanced scientific research, cutting-edge detection technologies, and policy-driven strategies to enhance biosecurity across Europe. 

The ОneSTOP project consortium at the project’s kick-off meeting held on 20-24 January 2025 in Ispra, Italy.
The project is structured around four key objectives:
  1. Improve species detection and response time by incorporating computer vision, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis and citizen science initiatives.
  2. Facilitate swift action against invasive species threats by openly sharing data in international standards for biodiversity data with stakeholders who need it.
  3. Support policy-makers in making informed decisions about where and how to allocate resources for invasive species management by developing data-driven systems.
  4. Ensure stakeholder collaboration and knowledge exchange by implementing Living Labs at the regional level and an international policy forum, thereby encouraging socio-political action.

OneSTOP aligns with the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) mission to protect EU biodiversity by improving IAS management through advanced biosecurity technologies and enhanced data integration. By fostering collaboration with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and supporting Member States with innovative tools, the project strengthens the EU’s capacity to detect, respond to, and mitigate IAS threats in line with existing regulations.

Pensoft’s role in OneSTOP

As the leader of Work Package 1, Pensoft is responsible for shaping OneSTOP’s visual identity and developing a comprehensive strategy for communication, dissemination, and impact. This includes crafting a data and knowledge management plan to ensure the project’s findings are effectively shared and utilised. By fostering collaboration with key biosecurity networks, these efforts will strengthen OneSTOP’s long-term influence.

A key part of this work is to raise awareness about invasive alien species (IAS) and their pathways, ensuring that policymakers, researchers, and the public understand their impact and the importance of prevention. Pensoft will contribute to translating complex scientific findings into accessible content—including infographics, policy briefs, and interactive visualisations—to engage policymakers, researchers, and the public. These efforts will ensure that IAS knowledge is effectively shared, fostering collaboration and informed decision-making across sectors. Knowledge transfer materials will be shared through various channels, including OneSTOP’s five Living Labs across Europe, where stakeholders will be actively engaged in outreach and citizen science initiatives.

Pensoft will play a vital role in strengthening public awareness, fostering engagement, and promoting effective strategies for monitoring and managing IAS.

International Consortium

The project brings together twenty international partners from fifteen countries operating in various sectors, ultimately contributing with diverse expertise:

  1. Meise Botanic Garden – Belgium
  2. Aarhus University – Denmark
  3. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology – United Kingdom
  4. Biopolis – Portugal
  5. Coventry University – United Kingdom
  6. The Cyprus Institute – Cyprus
  7. Research Institute for Nature and Forest – Belgium
  8. Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences – Czech Republic
  9. Lincoln University – New Zealand
  10. Platform Kinetics – United Kingdom
  11. Pensoft Publishers – Bulgaria
  12. Stellenbosch University – South Africa
  13. University of Exeter – United Kingdom
  14. University of Vienna – Austria
  15. Greenformation – Hungary
  16. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – Germany
  17. Ovidius University of Constanta – Romania
  18. Natural Resources Institute Finland – Finland
  19. The Binary Forest – Belgium
  20. Experimental Station of Arid Areas of the Spanish National Research Council – Spain

The OneSTOP project website is coming soon!

For more information visit the OneSTOP project website, and make sure to follow the project’s progress via our social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Advancing carbon cycle understanding: Pensoft joins the CONCERTO project

Combining expertise in project branding and stakeholder engagement, Pensoft will support the collaborative mission to enhance understanding and modelling of the terrestrial carbon cycle

Pensoft takes on a fundamental part in the newly launched EU-funded project: Improved CarbOn cycle represeNtation through multi-sCale models and Earth obseRvation for Terrestrial ecOsystems (CONCERTO) as a leader of Work Package 7: Communication, dissemination and synergies of project results and sustainability.

Officially started on 1st January 2025, the kick-off meeting for CONCERTO was held in Milan, Italy, on 21-22 January 2025. Over 35 participants attended the meeting in person, while several other colleagues joined online to shape the vision of CONCERTO’s aim to strengthen the European research ecosystem by creating an innovative scientific collaborative framework that enhances our understanding, monitoring, and modelling of the terrestrial cycle, and leads to reduced uncertainty and Earth system models convergence.

CONCERTO project’s kick-off meeting was held on 21-22 January 2025 in Milan, Italy. The meeting also welcomed project members remotely.
The Project

The key objectives of the CONCERTO project are:

To enhance the understanding, monitoring, and modelling of the terrestrial carbon cycle, while reducing uncertainty, and enabling Earth System Model convergence.

To utilise novel Earth Observation data to advance research and improve the representation of land cover, leaf area index, and management intensity through high-resolution maps.

To integrate advanced Data Assimilation and Machine Learning into modelling to deliver more accurate and reliable insights.

To prepare for the incorporation of FLEX data into land surface models and leverage data to improve understanding of biogenic volatile organic compound emissions.

Pensoft’s role in CONCERTO

As the leader of Work Package 7, Pensoft will focus on disseminating the science behind the project by ensuring effective communication and engagement strategies. A distinctive brand identity will be established through the creation of a project logo, branding guidelines, promotional materials, and a dedicated website. This website will act as a central hub for project content and updates, providing stakeholders and the public with easy access to relevant information.

To maximize the project’s impact, Pensoft will develop a comprehensive communication and dissemination strategy to share project results with key stakeholders and target audiences. Additionally, stakeholder engagement efforts will produce high-quality content such as videos, press releases, and newsletters. These materials will communicate the project’s progress and results, reaching a wide audience and fostering greater understanding and awareness of the project’s scientific objectives.

International Consortium

The project brings together thirteen international partners from seven countries operating in various sectors, ultimately contributing with diverse expertise:

  1. FONDAZIONE CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEOSUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI, Italy
  2. METEOROLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH OBSERVATION SRL, Italy
  3. SISTEMA GMBH, Austria
  4. EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS, United Kingdom
  5. BARCELONA SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER CENTRO NACIONAL DE SUPERCOMPUTACION, Spain
  6. UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN, Belgium
  7. CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA Y APLICACIONES FORESTALES, Spain
  8. UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE, Netherlands
  9. INSTITUT ROYAL D’AERONOMIE SPATIALEDE BELGIQUE, Belgium
  10. POLITECNICO DI TORINO, Italy
  11. PENSOFT PUBLISHERS, Bulgaria
  12. THE UNIVERSITY OF READING, United Kingdom
  13. IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE, United Kingdom.

Over the coming months, the CONCERTO project will focus on creating innovative resources to support professionals in improving multi-scale models and Earth observation for terrestrial ecosystems.

The CONCERTO project website is coming soon!

In the meantime, make sure to follow the project’s progress by following our social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Clear, Open and Engaged: Pensoft’s perspective on the mission of a science communicator

Teodor Metodiev, senior communications officer at Pensoft, offers his thoughts on why and how research should be publicised today.

Teodor Metodiev, senior communications officer at Pensoft at the opening of “The pollinators we can’t live without” temporary exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, Bulgaria, 2023).

With more than three decades of experience in the domain of science communication, Pensoft has a rich perspective on what it takes to bring science into the spotlight. A testament to this is its growing projects department, where the public face of some of Europe’s most innovative research undertakings is being moulded by a cohort of experts. 

Among their ranks is Teodor Metodiev, a communicator with years of experience when it comes to bridging the gap between the scientific and the public. He recently sat down for an interview to share his observations on the significance, challenges and lessons of the job. 

Read below to find out how effective engagement can make today’s research tomorrow’s reality.  

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Why is science communication important and how can it influence the scope and impact of today’s research?

I believe science communication is fundamental because it eliminates the gap between researchers and users of their work, be they policymakers, practitioners or other stakeholders. By combining novel and traditional communication methods, scientific knowledge, results and data are much more likely to be shared, understood, and applied. If not communicated effectively, scientific results and advances have no real impact and are simply lost in an avalanche of emerging new information.

What are the most common challenges you encounter as a science communicator?

There are many diverse challenges one could encounter as a science communicator! I believe the most common one is the overall complexity of science, which is sometimes very difficult to communicate in a clear, visually appealing way. For me personally, one of the greater challenges is to delve into controversial topics such as climate change, vaccines, or genetic engineering, where emotions and ideologies may run high.

How can complex technical concepts be made accessible to non-science stakeholders and the general public?

Making complex concepts accessible to the general public is among the main responsibilities of a science communicator. There are many different approaches to do that, but it ultimately depends on the audience you want to engage – for example, you would not necessarily want to interact with a farmer through policy briefs. In general, I would list three main ‘pillars’ that can be considered when dealing with complex scientific information:

  • Simplify the language and avoid scientific jargon (i.e. by using short sentences with a clear structure)
  • Always leverage visual aids, such as infographics, animations, videos or graphical abstracts
  • Try to present the information in a narrative-like form – start with the background and problem, and then explain the solutions you are offering.

By adhering to these simple steps, I believe most challenging scientific concepts can be easily translated into an understandable format for laypersons or other stakeholder groups!

Which indicators do you consider crucial when assessing the success of a science communication campaign?

In my view, the success of any science communication campaign should be measured beyond quantitative indicators. Sure, audience reach, number of impressions and demographic data are important, but real success should be assessed through active engagement (i.e. comments or questions towards the topic, participation in events or activities, feedback and criticism from evaluation surveys, etc). I believe that monitoring these qualitative indicators on an ongoing basis is instrumental for a long-term awareness and understanding of a given topic over time.

What has made Pensoft unique and effective in the field of science communication?

I honestly believe the driving force behind Pensoft’s success in science communication is the motivated team behind it –  it has demonstrated that an openness to engage, combined with an urge to learn and expand your horizons, is ultimately the making of a successful science communicator. In addition to being curious and forthcoming, an environmental conscience is another fundamental characteristic of Pensoft which surely resonates with all of its members!

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Explore past and present research projects in Pensoft’s communication portfolio.  

Pensoft joins the FORSAID project in the next chapter for forest health

With its extensive experience in science communication and dissemination, Pensoft will help maximise FORSAID’s impact and ensure its long-term legacy.

As the dedicated communication partner of the project, Pensoft will lead efforts to popularise a new early detection paradigm targeting forest pests in Europe

The issue of pest proliferation is felt more acutely than ever in the wake of globalisation and climate change. As pests and pathogens spread across biomes, the threat to forests and the health of the plants within is only increasing. Cognisant of this worrying trend, the European Union has actively pursued mitigation and prevention measures over the last few years. Grassroots efforts are also on the rise as insights from academia and citizen science alike improve monitoring capabilities on the ground.

To address the core of the problem in its entirety, greater coordination and innovation across the board are required.

It is with this tenet in mind that FORSAID: FORest Surveillance with Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies – first emerged on the scene as a Horizon Europе-funded project. 

The goal of FORSAID is the inception and deployment of a technology-based early detection system for EU-regulated forest pests. 

The pursuit of that very goal brought together 17 partner organisations from 10 countries. FORSAID is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. Having officially started in September 2024, it is set to continue until February 2028.

Within the team, Pensoft has taken the lead in the domains of Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation. Its long-standing expertise vis-a-vis public campaigns for science initiatives will be harnessed in an attempt to show the benefits and solutions that the latest digital innovations can bring to plant health monitoring. Thus, Pensoft is to help maximise FORSAID’s impact and ensure its long-term legacy. 

The project will be presented across the public domain by following a tailored communication plan. Examples of its implementation include social media campaigns, regular updates of a dedicated FORSAID website and synergies with various stakeholder groups.

Foresight in FORSAID

The project consortium firmly believes that digital innovation is the key to a truly effective pest detection framework. This signifies the central role of technology at all stages of this paradigm’s development process. 

More specifically, the employment of digital tools will proceed on several levels: 

  • Satellite and drone surveillance will be employed to remotely map out forested areas of interest and assess the extent of plant damage caused by pests and pathogens.
  • Smart traps and DNA barcoding will serve to identify and sort out different species of pests.
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) models will assist throughout this process as it helps to automate the procedure, thereby increasing efficiency. 

Building on the technology-based research and experimentation, insights from a variety of stakeholders will also be gathered to crystalise FORSAID’s approach.

 The consortium’s intent here is the consolidation of a network of interested and involved actors who would ensure the long-term application of the project’s results. A special focus is also placed on citizen scientists, whose practical needs will be considered in the design of the digital tools developed within FORSAID. Finally, a detailed economic analysis will assess the early detection framework and its associated technological instruments, in order to ensure its usability in the long run.

The FORSAID project consortium at the project’s kick-off meeting held on 26 September 2024 in Padua, Italy.

Full list of project partners:

  1. The University of Padua (Italy)
  2. The National Research Council of Italy (Italy)
  3. EFOS Information Solutions D.O.O. (Slovenia)
  4. European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (international)
  5. European Institute of Planted Forest (international)
  6. National Institute of Agricultural and Veterinary Research – INRAE (France)
  7. National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Portugal)
  8. Forest Research Centre (Portugal)
  9. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
  10. Linnaeus University (Sweden)
  11. Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolutionand Biodiversity Science (Germany)
  12. Pensoft Publishers (Bulgaria)
  13. Slovenian Forestry Institute (Slovenia)
  14. Telespazio France SAS (France)
  15. University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
  16. Ukrainian National Forestry University (Ukraine)
  17. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL (Switzerland)

You can follow the project’s progress and achievements on the dedicated LinkedIn and BlueSky pages and FORSAID’S brand new official website.

Unpacking the possibilities of Intellectual Properties for Open Science: Pensoft joins the IP4OS project

As part of the Horizon Europe consortium IP4OS, Pensoft will contribute with services and know-how in scholarly publishing and project branding.

As part of the Horizon Europe consortium, Pensoft will contribute with services and know-how in scholarly publishing and project branding.

Pensoft takes on an integral part in the newly launched EU-funded project: Intellectual Properties for Open Science: Pensoft (IP4OS) as a leader of the Work Package 5: Knowledge transfer: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation of project results and Sustainability

IP4OS focuses on the integration of Intellectual Property and Open Science to empower professionals across Europe in making research outputs more accessible and impactful.

The IP4OS project officially started with a kick-off symposium on 8-9 January 2025, in Kiel, Germany.

Over 50 participants from diverse fields came together for the first day of the event, which featured talks and discussions focused on the intersection between Intellectual Property and Open Science. The second day saw presentations of the work packages that mapped out the project’s activities over the next two years through a collaborative exchange of ideas.

Members of the IP4OS consortium at the project kick-off in early January 2025 (Kiel, Germany).

The Project

IP4OS aims to promote a practical connection between Intellectual Property management and Open Science principles. 

The project has outlined several objectives to reach this goal, including:

  1. Best-practice manual: IP4OS is to release a guide with actionable steps for integrating Intellectual Property and Open Science principles effectively.
  2. Raise awareness: the consortium is to inform about the use of Intellectual Property tools in the context of Open Science practices among key professional groups.
  3. Professional training: the project is to deliver educational programs to a broad audience and equip participants with practical knowledge and skills.
  4. Collaborative community: IP4OS is to engage professionals across Europe to create a network of individuals and organisations focused on the improvement of knowledge-sharing practices.

These goals are aligned with the European Commission’s vision to strengthen knowledge-sharing practices for societal and economic advancement.

Pensoft’s role in IP4OS

As the leader of Work Package 5, Pensoft is responsible for amplifying the visibility and long-term impact of the IP4OS project. 

Key activities under this work package include:
  1. Distinctive brand identity: Pensoft will create a project logo, branding guidelines, promotional content, and a website to serve as a hub for project content and updates.
  2. Communication and dissemination strategy: Pensoft will prepare a detailed plan for sharing project results amongst key stakeholders and audiences. The plan will be implemented during the early stages of the project.
  3. Project outcomes visibility: Pensoft will produce key informational materials, including the best-practice manual and educational resources. These will be shared through platforms like the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and Knowledge Valorisation Platform to extend the project’s reach.
  4. Stakeholder engagement: Pensoft will deliver content such as videos, press releases and newsletters to communicate the project’s progress and results to a wide audience.

These efforts, among others, aim to make the project results widely accessible and reusable by all relevant groups within and beyond the research community.

International Consortium

The project brings together nine international partners from eight countries operating in various sectors, ultimately contributing with diverse expertise:

Together, the consortium is committed to addressing the challenges of integrating Intellectual Property and Open Science practices.

Over the coming months, the IP4OS project will focus on developing resources to support professionals in advancing the use of Intellectual Property and Open Science practices. 

The IP4OS project website is coming soon!

In the meantime, make sure to follow the project’s progress by following our social media channels on BlueSky and LinkedIn.

Science Communication in Support of SDGs: Pensoft at the UN’s Science Summit 2024

Boris Barov, Project Manager at Pensoft, talked about open-science publishing and science communication as a stepping stone towards the fulfilment of biodiversity targets. 

Boris Barov (far right) and network partners at the UN Science Summit 2024 (New York, USA).

Last September saw a showcase by Pensoft at the Science Summit 2024 that took place in conjunction with the 79th session of the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA79) in New York.

This participation came about as a result of the collaboration within a network of European organisations from the domains of biodiversity, ecology and engineering.

The organisations at the core of the network held a workshop on the combined role of science and technology in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More precisely, the Kunmig-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM GBF) was selected as a testbed, whose stipulations can guide innovation across sectors and disciplines on the road to the realisation of specific SDGs.

The day-long programme featured 30 presentations that covered a variety of themes related to research priorities and technological instruments servicing the KM GBF.  Experts and stakeholders at the political, academic and professional level were involved in the proceedings, solidifying the network’s status as a hub for innovators in biodiversity conservation efforts.

Among the speakers was Boris Barov, Project Manager at Pensoft, who introduced the audience to the importance of open-science publishing and science communication as a stepping stone towards the fulfilment of biodiversity targets. 

Barov elaborated on the key tenets and approaches ensuring that publishers like Pensoft are actively contributing to the preservation of the biosphere on a global level.

Those include:

  • disseminating conservation-centric research that uncovers findings and innovations critical to the effective implementation of the KM-GBF
  • supporting open access and knowledge sharing that guarantee the free availability of research outputs to any and all parties that need it
  • fostering an interface between science and policy that allows vital expertise to reach and inform decision-makers 
  • championing inclusivity and equality that give indigenous communities a seat at the table 

Additionally, Barov singled out Pensoft’s participation in the EU-funded research projects CO-OP4CBD, BioAgora and TRANSPATH as a testament to effective science communication that empowers stakeholder collaboration and engagement at the science-policy interface. 

It is the intention of the network of organisations to collect the stakeholder input submitted during the event in a future whitepaper designed to outline its approach to facilitating biodiversity governance through research and technology.

Moreover, this is meant to be followed by an open call rallying international support for the integration of biodiversity conservation priorities into the post-SDG agenda of the UN.

Read more about the Horizon Europe-funded CO-OP4CBD & BioAgora projects and Pensoft’s involvement on our blog. You can also follow updates from CO-OP4CBD on BluesSky, X and Linkedin. BioAgora is also on X and Linkedin.

Pensoft turns up ‘the voice’ of two strategic EU projects aiming to safeguard nature

In 2023, Pensoft also joined TRANSPATH as an expert in science communication, dissemination and exploitation. Find more on our blog and follow the Horizon Europe project on X and Linkedin.

Transformative changes for biodiversity and climate protection: Pensoft partners with EU project TRANSPATH

Innovative tools for science communication: How to increase your research impact

At the 5th ESP Europe conference in Wageningen, Pensoft will lead a training session on effective science communication through open access publishing.

The Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) is a global network that connects ecosystem services scientists, practitioners, stakeholders, and policymakers at local, national, regional, and global scales. ESP enhances and encourages a diversity of approaches, while reducing unnecessary duplication of effort in the development of concepts and application of ecosystem services.

Starting in 2008, ESP organises annual international conferences, where experts share research progress and exchange ideas in the field of ecosystem services, strengthening cooperation among scientists and practitioners. Since 2015, global and regional conferences started taking place bi-annually, with the 5th ESP Europe conference taking place this year between 18 and 22 November in Wageningen, The Netherlands, under the theme ‘Ecosystem Services: One Planet, One Health’.

The ESP Europe conference will focus on the question of how the ecosystem services concept can address the challenges involved in delivering the global vision of One Health. It will also highlight the interdependence of health across various domains – human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health, and the health of the global environment.

In addition to the main event, the organisers are providing access to pre-conference trainings on Sunday, 17 November, one day before the official start of the conference. One of these focuses on science communication and its role in enhancing research impact. Titled “Innovative tools for science communication: How to increase your research impact”, this session will be hosted by Pensoft Publishers.

A communication and dissemination leader in a wide range of EU research projects, as well as an independent publishing company, Pensoft will introduce the participants to best practices in science communication, drawing examples from a project portfolio which covers ecosystems and biodiversity, agriculture and forestry, pollinators and more. This training activity will also highlight the integral role of open science in effective dissemination, showcasing the opportunities facilitated by Pensoft’s open-access journals, which promoting transparency, accessibility, and reusability of results. Overall, the session will provide an in-depth look into the interlinkage between effectively communicated research outputs and the benefits of openly published data.

The Pensoft team will share their experiences with projects such as  SELINA and SpongeBoost, both of which will also be presented in the scientific sessions and via a shared booth at the event.

Everyone who has already registered for the official programme can still add a training to their application using this link.

Orthoptera and origami: Pensoft at the International Congress of Entomology

Meeting our authors in person was a chance for us to gather valuable feedback and make sure we are doing our best.

The International Congress of Entomology 2024 (ICE2024), which took place on August 25-30 2024 in Kyoto, Japan, was arguably the biggest entomology event of the year. For the Pensoft team, it was an excellent chance to catch up with our authors and editors and discuss new partnerships.

At the Kyoto International Conference Center, entomologists visited lectures, symposia, and poster presentations, but they also enjoyed insect-themed haikus, origami, and artworks, and got to sample some edible insects.

Meeting our authors in person was a chance for us to gather valuable feedback and make sure we are doing our best to provide entomologists with a frictionless process that makes their published research shine.

  • Robin Kundrata, author in ZooKeys
  • Deepa Pureswaran, author and editor in NeoBiota
  • Alain Roques, author and editor in NeoBiota
  • Jessica Gillung, author in ZooKeys
  • Ranjith AP, editor in Check List and author in ZooKeys and Journal of Hymenoptera Research
  • Minoo Heidari Latibari, author in ZooKeys
  • Elisabeth Geiser, author in ZooKeys
  • Sven Bradler, author and editor in ZooKeys
  • Showtaro Kakizoe, author in ZooKeys
  • Antonio Carapelli, author and reviewer in ZooKeys

At Stand 25, congress participants browsed the company’s open-access entomological journals, including ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, and Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, as well as its wide range of books on insect diversity, systematics, and ecology.

Scientific illustrator Denitsa Peneva’s beautiful works adorned Pensoft’s stand; Mostafa Ghafouri Moghaddam, subject editor at ZooKeys and Biodiversity Data Journal and author at a number of Pensoft-published journals even got to take one of her prints home after winning a raffle that Pensoft organised. He won a beautiful illustration of Bombus fragrans on Trifolium pratense.

Pensoft’s founder and CEO and one of the founding editors of the company’s flagship journal ZooKeys, Prof. Lyubomir Penev, was there representing the company and meeting with fellow entomologists.

  • Prof. Penev with Evgeny Zakharov of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics
  • Prof. Penev with researchers Jadranka Rota, Niklas Wahlberg, Alexander Konstantinov, and Michael Schmidt
  • Prof. Penev with researcher Caroline S. Chaboo

They also got the chance to learn about the ARPHA Platform, a next-generation publishing solution that offers a streamlined and efficient workflow for authors, reviewers, and editors.

ARPHA Platform’s 15 top features enjoyed by client journals and publishers

At ICE2024, Pensoft also presented its newest open-access jorunal, Natural History Collections and Museomics. A peer-reviewed journal for research, discussion and innovation of natural history collections, NHCM will publish under a diamond open access model, allowing free access to published content without any fees for authors or readers.

New Diamond OA journal Natural History Collections and Museomics launches on ARPHA Platform

In addition to its publishing endeavors, Pensoft also presented some of the EU-funded pollinator projects that it takes part in such as Safeguard, PollinERA, and WildPosh.

ICE2024 was a chance to advance entomological science and foster collaboration within the global scientific community. For those who missed the chance to connect with Pensoft in Kyoto, the company’s journals and platforms remain accessible online, offering opportunities to read and produce groundbreaking research in insect diversity and ecology.

MAkiNg Technology work for moNitoring polliNAtors: Pensoft joins ANTENNA

Pensoft is to maximise the project’s impact by informing stakeholders about results and raising public awareness about pollinators.

Pensoft joins the newly funded Biodiversa+ project ANTENNA focused on making technology work for monitoring pollinators and is tasked with the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities. 

The overarching goal of ANTENNA is to fill key monitoring gaps through advancing innovative technologies that will underpin and complement EU-wide pollinator monitoring schemes, and to provide tested transnational pipelines from monitoring activities to curated datasets and enhanced indicators that support pollinator-relevant policy and end-users.

The ANTENNA project answers the BiodivMon call, which was launched in September 2022 by Biodiversa+ in collaboration with the European Commission. The BiodivMon call sought proposals for three-year research projects to improve transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change, emphasising innovation and harmonisation of biodiversity data collection and management methodologies, addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status and trends to combat biodiversity loss, and the effective use of existing biodiversity monitoring data. 

Supporting the work of Work Package #5: “Project coordination, and communication”, Pensoft is dedicated to maximising the project’s impact by employing a mix of channels to inform stakeholders about the results from ANTENNA and raise public awareness about pollinators.

Pensoft is also tasked with creating and maintaining a clear and recognisable project brand, promotional materials, website, social network profiles, internal communication platform, and online libraries. Another key responsibility is the development, implementation and regular updates of the project’s communication, dissemination and exploitation plans, that ANTENNA is set to follow for the next four years.

On 14-15 March 2024, ANTENNA held its official kick off meeting. Project partners came together in Halle, Germany for two days to outline objectives, discuss strategies, and set the groundwork for this venture.

Specifically, the combined expertise of the consortium will address the following objectives:

  1. Advance automated sample sorting and image recognition tools from individual prototypes to systems that can be adopted by practitioners
  2. Expand pollinator monitoring to under-researched pollinator taxa, ecosystems, and pressures
  3. Quantify the added value of novel monitoring systems in comparison and combination with ‘traditional’ methods in terms of cost effectiveness
  4. Provide a framework for integrative monitoring by combining multiple data streams and. The framework will also support the development of near real-time forecasting models as bases for early warning systems;
  5. Upscale local demonstrations into the implementation of large-scale transnational pipelines and provide context-specific guidance to the use of policy-makers and other users who might need to select monitoring methods and indicators.

Consortium*:

  1. Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany
  2. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands
  3. Aarhus University, Denmark
  4. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
  5. University of the Aegean, Greece
  6. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  7. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

*Pensoft Publishers is a subcontractor tasked by the UFZ with multiple communication, dissemination and exploitation activities as part of Work Package 5.

Stay up to date with the ANTENNA project’s progress on X/Twitter (@ANTENNA_project) and LinkedIn (/antenna-project).

Brand new computer language describes organismal traits to create computable species descriptions

Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

The beetle species Grebennikovius basilewskyi. Numbers next to arrows indicate patterns of phenotype statements explained in the section “Phenoscript: main patterns of phenotype statements”. Arrow numbers from T1 to T5 illustrate individual body parts. See more in the research study.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Nature is the endless variety of shapes, colours and behaviours exhibited by organisms. These traits help organisms survive and find mates, like how a male peacock’s colourful tail attracts females or his wings allow him to fly away from danger. Understanding traits is crucial for biologists, who study them to learn how organisms evolve and adapt to different environments.

To do this, scientists first need to describe these traits in words, like saying a peacock’s tail is “vibrant, iridescent, and ornate”. This approach works for small studies, but when looking at hundreds or even millions of different animals or plants, it’s impossible for the human brain to keep track of everything.

Computers could help, but not even the latest AI technology is able to grasp human language to the extent needed by biologists. This hampers research significantly because, although scientists can handle large volumes of DNA data, linking this information to physical traits is still very difficult.

To solve this problem, researchers from the Finnish Museum of Natural History, Giulio Montanaro and Sergei Tarasov, along with collaborators, have created a special language called Phenoscript. This language is designed to describe traits in a way that both humans and computers can understand. Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

Phenoscript uses something called semantic technology, which helps computers understand the meaning behind words, much like how modern search engines know the difference between the fruit “apple” and the tech company “Apple” based on the context of your search.

“This language is still being tested, but it shows a lot of promise. As more scientists start using Phenoscript, it will revolutionise biology by making vast amounts of trait data available for large-scale studies, boosting the emerging field of phenomics,”

explains Montanaro.

In their research article, newly published in the open-access, peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data Journal, the researchers make use of the new language for the first time, as they create semantic phenotypes for four species of dung beetles from the genus Grebennikovius. Then, to demonstrate the power of the semantic approach, they apply simple semantic queries to the generated phenotypic descriptions. 

Finally, the team takes a look yet further ahead into modernising the way scientists work with species information. Their next aim is to integrate semantic species descriptions with the concept of nanopublications, “which encapsulates discrete pieces of information into a comprehensive knowledge graph”. As a result, data that has become part of this graph can be queried directly, thereby ensuring that it remains Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) through a variety of semantic resources.

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Research paper:

Montanaro G, Balhoff JP, Girón JC, Söderholm M, Tarasov S (2024) Computable species descriptions and nanopublications: applying ontology-based technologies to dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae). Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e121562. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e121562

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The hereby study is the latest addition to the special topical collection: “Linking FAIR biodiversity data through publications: The BiCIKL approach”, launched and supported by the recently concluded Horizon 2020 project: Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL). The collection aims to bring together scientific publications that demonstrate the advantages and novel approaches in accessing and (re-)using linked biodiversity data.

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What expert recommendations did the BiCIKL consortium give to policy makers and research funders to ensure that biodiversity data is FAIR, linked, open and, indeed, future-proof? Find out in the blog post summarising key lessons learnt from the Horizon 2020 project.

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

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