Our story
Germ of Life is the innovative initiative of 10 entities from 6 countries: University of Patras (Greece), Region of Western Greece, Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (Italy), Lamoro Development Agency (Italy), Ubitel (Spain), Atos (France), The Development and Infrastructure Company of Alqueva (Portugal), Junta de Andalucía (Spain), Dotsoft (Greece), Infotrend (Cyprus). With the support of the European Commission through the Interreg Euro-MED program, to create a digital technological platform with monitoring indicators and concerted data that allows addressing mitigation and adaptation to drought for the balance of ecosystems in the Euro-Mediterranean area, which is very sensitive to climate change.
Partners
University of Patras
The partnership is led by the University of Patras (Greece), with researchers from its Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, experts in Meteorology and Climatology. Prof. Athanassios A. Argiriou acts as Germ of Life Project Leader. He has participated and in many international and European mainly research projects as project manager and task coordinator. His research interests include climatology – homogenization, artificial intelligence methods applied to weather and environmental time series and to other meteorological data and energy meteorology.
Panagiota Saranti acts as a Germ of Life Project Manager. She is a Civil Engineer and she has worked on the management, scientific monitoring and technical implementation of the several international research projects about supply chain, intelligent transport systems, environmental protection and circular economy, climate change adaptation and mitigation and energy efficiency of public buildings.
Region of Western Greece
Region Of Western Greece is one of the partners. With notable experience in European innovation projects on climate change, environment and sustainability. The results of the proposed project are absolutely relevant to the Regional Development Program 2021 – 2025. The pillar of economic activity is its agriculture, and its data show the worrying decrease in rainfall, thus an increased risk of drought.
Fokion Zaimis, Vice Governor for Entrepreneurship Research and Innovation, explains in this video the region’s participation in Germ of Life, and his point of view on the project’s objectives. The results of the Germ of Life project cover all of the sectors green and blue investments, the circular economy, and adaptation to climate change.
Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
From Italy, Foundation Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) is specialized in researching and creating models of climate change and its impacts on ecosystems and society, to provide rigorous results that allow establishing policies for sustainable growth, environmental protection, and adaptation to a changing climate.
In Germ of Life project, its researcher Manuela Balzarolo is the technological coordinator. She has specialized in the application of remote sensing to assess vegetation productivity, ecosystem functions and phenology. She is currently coordinating the ECOPROPHET project, that aims at improving simulations of ecosystem productivity by using new Earth Observation products from different platforms (e.g. ESA Sentinel 2).
LAMORO DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Lamoro Development Agency, made up of town councils and other public organizations in the Italian region of Piedmont, in the northwest of said country. Its mission is to promote a sustainable economy through the synergy between local development policies and transnational projects. Since 1995, it has participated in numerous European territorial cooperation programs.
Sonia Abluton is your representative in Germ of Life. She has coordinated regional and European projects in line with the 2030 Agenda: environmental sustainability, gender equality, circular economy, valorisation of cultural and natural heritage, support for entrepreneurship. In Germ of Life project she will be involved in project management, implementation of the pilot action and coordination of WP3.
UBITEL
Ubitel, engineering and technology company, based in Seville (Spain), has extensive experience in organizing European innovation projects in areas such as digital health, social well-being, and the application of digital technologies to productive sectors or population segments. Juan Charneco, Ubitel’s CEO, is a Telecommunication Engineer. He has a wide experience working for public organizations combined with a strong career in his own innovative companies (Ubitel with more than 15 years and Ubitelcare, a start up).
Juan Charneco has a key role in Germ of life, having an important participation in the technical part of the Project, being the leader of the WP1. From Ubitel, Juan Charneco define, in collaboration with the rest of partners, the specifications of the 3 platforms that will be developed during the execution of the Germ of Life Project.
ATOS
Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, is committed to decarbonization and sustainable development through the use of artificial intelligence, data analytics, secure cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT). Atos Inno’Labs, dedicated to innovative, collaborative projects, are supporting Germ of Life through the expertise in hydrology, environment applications and smart decision-making models based on data and IoT platforms of its Montpellier (France) R&D team.
Amine Chemchem represents to Atos in Germ of Life. Data Scientist, PhD in Artificial Intelligence. Global Atos Senior Expert. Leader of the AI tribe in TS France. In 2020, Amine joined Atos Montpellier as an AI expert, where he is responsible for R&D and innovation projects within the data-driven intelligence division.
THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY OF ALQUEVA
In the Portuguese region of Alentejo, EDIA manages the system of 69 Alqueva dams and reservoirs, the largest strategic water reserve in Europe, with a total capacity of 4,150 million cubic meters. It will participate with pilot tests in a geographical area considered very vulnerable to desertification processes.
Luisa Pinto leads the EDIA team as Germ of Life. With a degree in Environmental Engineering and training in Water Resources Management, she is the Director of EDIA’s Environmental and Heritage Impacts Department (DIAP), focusing on Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental and Heritage Monitoring on site and Post-Environmental Assessment. She coordinates and develops work in agri-environmental sustainability area.
JUNTA DE ANDALUCÍA – REDIAM
Junta de Andalucía, regional government, which through its Department of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy, regulates and manages alert situations and possible droughts. Andalusia, a territory affected by drought, has extensive experience in innovation projects to mitigate it. Its sensor network, Rediam (Andalusian Environmental Information Network), provides valuable data for the risk platform, in addition to the production and updating of numerous information on environmental issues.
Javier Villarreal leads his team at Germ of Life. Degree in Biological Sciences, worked at the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia as a technical advisor and in the technical direction of projects developed using spatial databases.
DOTSOFT
Dotsoft, an ICT company that from Thessaloniki (Greece) develops and promotes software applications internationally using and integrating cutting-edge innovations, for open source solutions, electronic collaboration systems, multi-format data exchange, management of digital assets, among others. Miltiadis Anastasiadis, electronic control engineering, represents this company in Germ of Life.
He participates as senior researcher and technical manager on behalf of Dotsoft in all activities, but mainly in Vulnerability Assessment Tool. He will follow developments within the whole duration of the project and contribute to have successful outputs and useful for the pilot communities and MED in general.
INFOTREND INNOVATIONS
Company from Nicosia (Cyprus) with experience in the design and implementation of complex ICT for several European projects. Lelia Ataliani is Managing Director. IT professional with many years of experience in projects both EU and National ones for different market segments using AI technologies. National representative for ISO Working Group 4 for Cybersecurity (Security and controls).
The role of Infotrend in project entails the provision of cloud-based infrastructure to deploy the Germ of Life solutions. Design a system architecture and modelling of the system. Besides, collaborate in the development of the Vulnerability Assessment Tool and Innovation procurement platform. And lead the activity relevant to the carbon footprint monitoring and assessment.
