tl;dr: we will be looking for a database manager who wants to join our SoilTemp team, based in Antwerp, Belgium, with the main goal to make the database more accessible and more flexible. Knowledge of R required, of SQL a plus.

Blockchains and biodiversity? While these words are not too far away from each other in the dictionary, it is not that common to see them brought together in one sentence. Yet that is exactly what we aim to do in a new project that just got funded by Europe’s BiodivERsA+-funding scheme.

The project is called ForestWeb 3.0, and its goal is to help biodiversity with the power of the next generation of internet – Web 3.0, with its fancy developments like blockchain, and others.

So, how is that supposed to work? Well, biodiversity monitoring is all about data availability, and when we are talking about global monitoring, that is a LOT of data. This data is owned by LOTS of people, who spend blood, sweat, tears and a lot of chocolate and trail mix on collecting that data out in the real world. If we want to track the impacts of global change on biodiversity, we need all those monitoring initiatives – and especially the long-term ones – available in one place.

This is something we have been doing for a while in SoilTemp, especially for the vital microclimate data underlying any complete biodiversity monitoring initiative. However, there are three things to note about that:

1. There is still a lot more data out there than we have currently brought together (especially given that data from the latest call is still frantically being processed).
2. This data is not yet as available as one might hope. It still needs to be made open access, and the framework to access it should be made as user-friendly as possible.
3. Not everyone is that keen to send their precious data to this unknown guy in Belgium, and understandably so. What if we can ensure people can store their data locally, and it’s only the LINK to that data that gets sent to the central database?

Points one and two are things we were planning to do anyway. Point three is where the blockchain and Web 3.0 come in, with these new technologies specifically designed to increase trust, transparency and control of the data, something we are all aspiring to.

ForestWeb 3.0 also wants to go further than that. Biodiversity is economically valuable, and increasingly so. Conserving that biodiversity is as well, and should be even more. What if we could increase that economical value for biodiverse land owners, to enhance the incentives to conserve nature? Doing so, however, requires good (and fast) monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In part two of ForestWeb 3.0, we’ll explore how this can be done. First, we’ll work on digital twins of nature, tracking biodiversity and ecosystem functions (e.g., microclimate buffering) in quasi-real time to ensure we can put better numbers to the value of biodiversity. Second, we’ll work on systems to monetize that biodiversity, and give (financial) credit to the actual people putting in the actual effort to conserve and restore nature.

Our team at the University of Antwerp is in charge of that first part: bringing together as much biodiversity and microclimate data as possible (through SoilTemp), make it accessible (both open access ánd easy to use), and make that database able to talk to remote datasets (over blockchain) and to real-time sensor networks.

Think that sound cool? Well, then we’ll soon have an opportunity for you! We will be looking for a postdoc (or predoc) to join our team and work on making SoilTemp bigger and better! A position based in Antwerp, initially for 1,5 years, for a person who loves data and databases, and is proficient in R and at least eager to learn about SQL and Web 3.0. Contribution to – and potentially leading of – global SoilTemp-papers can become part of the deal. Interested, feel free to reach out already by email (lembrechtsjonas [.ad.] gmail.com)