Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research is what LifeWatch ERIC exists to support, providing online computing facilities to accelerate that research and making available data and tools to produce reliable knowledge that can then be employed by decision-makers to safeguard the planet. But what is it like being a researcher?   'A Window on Science' podcast Season 3, Episode 15 "Early Career Researchers" is a conversation with Cristiano Tamborrino, CNR, the Italian National Research Council in Bari, and Daniel Crespo, the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies and the Department of Biology at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. They speak freely about their work, their prospects and the results they have achieved in their studies, and in doing so present a human face of science. Within their respective domains - terrestrial and freshwater  - they both express their satisfaction with working alongside of mathematicians, ICT engineers and geneticists in LifeWatch ERIC. They are proud of their contribution to combatting climate change, pollution, invasive alien species, and loss of biodiversity which all pose threats to human society, and recommend science as a sound career choice.