Lecce

The Research Unit at Third Parties (URT) in Lecce is based in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA) of the University of Salento, where it has offices and a multidisciplinary laboratory in which 20 staff members work. The URT was created to strengthen collaborations between IRET and the University of Salento, and as a crucial node in the connections between the European and Italian components of the LifeWatch research infrastructure, dedicated to the study of biodiversity and ecosystems.

The Lecce URT, within IRET, fosters an innovative approach to research on biodiversity and ecosystems, integrating scientific expertise with advanced IT tools for data production, management and modelling, respecting the principles of Open Science and FAIRness. Furthermore, it promotes advanced courses in e-biodiversity and ecosystem science at master, doctoral and post-doctoral level. These courses are organised in collaboration with European universities, with the aim of fostering the internationalisation of the URT and creating a network of scientific and cultural exchange. In this context, the fruitful collaboration between the URT, DiSTeBA and LifeWatch has favoured the implementation of regional, national and European projects.

The main areas of research at the site are: 

• Models and scenarios on species distribution in relation to global changes.

• Study of ecosystem services and environmental accounting.

• Creation of semantic tools to make data FAIR.

• Development of eco-informatics models and tools for data analysis in virtual research environments.

• Analysis of the mechanisms governing biodiversity and conservation in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.