INSTITUTE OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, public research institution

Their core work

The Institute of Landscape Ecology studies ecosystems, landscapes, and socio-ecological systems across Slovakia, contributing long-term monitoring data and ecological expertise to European research infrastructure networks. Their core work involves maintaining and operating Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) and Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) sites that track environmental change over decades. Within H2020, they contribute Slovak ecosystem monitoring capabilities to the eLTER research infrastructure — one of Europe's key ESFRI-listed environmental observation networks. Their participation spans data integration, site governance, and critical zone science connecting surface ecology with subsurface processes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015–2017), the institute focused on foundational ecosystem research and data integration, contributing to building the technical backbone of the eLTER network — keywords emphasize LTER infrastructure, ESFRI listing, DEIMS cataloguing, and data integration platforms. By the later period (2020–2026), the focus shifted decisively toward institutional maturation: governance structures, legal frameworks, financial sustainability, and service delivery for the eLTER infrastructure. This mirrors the natural lifecycle of a European research infrastructure moving from design to operational readiness.

They are moving from contributing research data to helping build and govern a permanent pan-European environmental observation infrastructure — a trajectory that positions them as long-term institutional partners rather than short-term project participants.

How they like to work

Exclusively a participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project, consistent with their role as a national LTER site operator contributing to a larger European infrastructure. They work in large consortia (54 unique partners across 25 countries from just 4 projects), which reflects the distributed nature of the eLTER network spanning monitoring sites across Europe. Their loyalty to a single infrastructure family (all projects are eLTER-related) suggests deep embeddedness in this community rather than broad thematic range.

Despite only 4 projects, they connect with 54 partners across 25 countries — a remarkably wide network driven by the pan-European scope of the eLTER infrastructure. Their network is essentially the eLTER consortium itself, spanning most EU and associated countries.

What sets them apart

They are Slovakia's key node in the eLTER network, providing long-term ecological and socio-ecological monitoring data from Central European landscapes that are underrepresented in Western-dominated research infrastructures. For consortium builders targeting ESFRI environmental infrastructure proposals or needing Central/Eastern European ecosystem data, this institute is one of the few established partners with continuous eLTER involvement since 2015. Their landscape ecology focus — integrating land use, biodiversity, and human activity at the landscape scale — complements more narrowly focused ecological institutes.

Highlights from their portfolio

• eLTER PLUS
  Their largest single grant (EUR 48,032) and part of a major 2020–2026 effort to make eLTER fully operational as a distributed European research infrastructure.
• eLTER PPP
  The Preparatory Phase Project is the formal step toward ESFRI implementation — participation here signals the institute is embedded in the governance layer, not just the research layer.