From intelligent sensors in the field to high-performance computing in the cloud, technology is at the heart of ARISE, the new national research infrastructure that can identify every species in the Netherlands.
The platform, launched by Naturalis Biodiversity Centre together with the University of Amsterdam, the University of Twente and the Westerdijk Institute, brings together artificial intelligence, DNA research, and sensor data to monitor biodiversity at unprecedented scale and speed.
Digital species identification
For the past five years, the University of Twente has been closely involved in the design and development of ARISE. Dr. Jacob Kamminga of the Pervasive Systems Research Group led the DSI team at UT, which designed and developed the digital species identification (DSI) architecture: a system that connects and manages all kinds of sensors (from wildlife and insect cameras to audio loggers) and links their data to AI algorithms for analysis. Researchers can choose an algorithm from a shared library to automatically analyse the collected data, visualise the results and download them for further study. “We are teaching these algorithms to learn from user feedback,” says Kamminga. “That makes them not only more accurate, but also capable of recognising a growing range of species. By working together and sharing training data openly, we can improve species recognition much faster.”
About ARISE
“The ARISE infrastructure brings strategic value to the University of Twente on multiple levels,” says Kamminga. “Most importantly, it enables us to make a societal impact by contributing our expertise to the urgent challenge of biodiversity loss. Through ARISE, we help drive essential biodiversity monitoring efforts that support critical research and ecological restoration.
The collaboration with Naturalis and the University of Amsterdam has been instrumental in advancing monitoring technologies and large-scale data management, and in co-developing standardisation frameworks and shared infrastructure. In particular, the close collaboration with Naturalis has deepened our joint understanding of how AI can accelerate biodiversity insights. Together, we have led innovations in active learning and expert-in-the-loop model development, resulting in impactful tools and publications at renowned conferences. The ARISE sensor portal is becoming a reusable asset across research projects at UvA and UT that involve sensor-based data acquisition. In addition, ARISE has catalysed the creation of a biodiversity monitoring FieldLab on the UT campus, which recently opened and now serves as a cross-disciplinary hub for research and education.”
European cloud
An important principle of ARISE is that all computing power remains within the European research infrastructure. The AI module built at UT can run analyses on powerful HPC systems such as SURF’s Snellius supercomputer or on local clusters at UT and Naturalis. “This independence from big tech platforms like Google or Microsoft is essential,” Kamminga explains. “It keeps our computing independent and our data secure, sustainable and under European control.”
Impact
UT’s contribution to ARISE is not just academic. The project inspired the creation of Ecomoni, a UT spin-off founded by Kamminga two years ago. Ecomoni builds smart, scalable sensors for biodiversity monitoring. These can be deployed and managed remotely, allowing researchers to collect far more detailed and frequent data. “It saves time and makes large-scale monitoring feasible,” Kamminga says. The University of Twente’s new biodiversity monitoring FieldLab, now open on campus, further expands the collaboration between ecology, data science and engineering.
