OneSTOP was presented to the public during European Researchers’ Night at Centro Ciência Viva de Vila do Conde by our Portuguese partners.

European Researchers’ Night takes place in cities across Europe every year on the last Friday of September and invites people of all ages to meet scientists and experience their work first-hand. This year, it gave OneSTOP an opportunity to show how technology for early detection of invasive alien species works

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OneSTOP and AlienSMART stand at European Researchers’ Night at Centro Ciência Viva de Vila do Conde

At the stand hosted by OneSTOP and AlienSMART, our partners showcased different tools and technologies used by our Portuguese Living Lab:

• CamAlien, a camera system mounted on vehicles, which photographs the vegetation along the road as the vehicle moves. This helps researchers locate invasive plants across large areas far faster than surveys on foot. 

• AMI Trap, which uses light to attract nocturnal insects and photographs them automatically. The result is a continuous record of which species are present, supporting long-term autonomous monitoring.

• PlantAlert, a tool that turns observations from gardeners into useful data. As many invasive plants start out as garden ornamentals, gardeners are often the first to notice when a species begins to spread aggressively. PlantAlert collects those observations so that potential invaders can be flagged earlier.

All of the tools displayed at Centro Ciência Viva de Vila do Conde support early detection of invasive alien species and show that everyone, not only scientists, can participate in this process.