Slovenia represents an important hotspot of cave biodiversity in the world, even if biodiversity and nature conservation research faces several challenges, related more or less with shortages of personnel, funding, and sometimes with the risks of doing research in the caving systems. “LifeWatch ERIC for Slovenia is very important because it brings us opportunities to get national fundings for our institutes in the consortium” explains Magdalena Aljančič, researcher from the LifeWatch Slovenian node. “We now have 10 institutions forming the consortium in Slovenia, and being part of the LifeWatch ERIC community actually strengthens us as a community, and gives us opportunities to build further the research infrastructures in Slovenia. So, for us LifeWatch ERIC is opening new paths to research and gives us opportunities to conduct further and to expand our research field.” Watch the video and find out more! More information here: https://www.lifewatch.eu/bees-2023/