Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure Implementation Project

Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure Implementation Project

The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) is a pan-European research infrastructure producing high-quality data and information on short-lived atmospheric constituents and on the processes leading to the variability of these constituents in natural and controlled atmospheres. Different atmospheric processes are increasingly in the focus of many societal and environmental challenges, such as air quality, health, sustainability and climate change. ACTRIS brings essential information for understanding atmospheric processes and bio-geochemical interactions between the atmosphere and ecosystems. ACTRIS is composed of Observational and Exploratory Platforms, Topical Centres, Data Centre, and Head Office that is coordinating the ACTRIS activities. ACTRIS serves a vast community of users such as scientists, policy makers, private sector, funding organisations and educators. ACTRIS activity started almost 20 years ago, and currently more than 100 European partners from 22 countries are engaged in building the research infrastructure. ACTRIS was selected to the ESFRI roadmap in 2016 and was granted with EC preparatory phase project funding (ACTRIS PPP) for 2017-2019. Interim ACTRIS Council (IAC), representing the governmental representatives of 16 member countries and one observer country, have submitted the ACTRIS ERIC step 1 documents to EC in Feb 2019. IAC is aiming to establish ACTRIS ERIC in 2021. ACTRIS is entering the implementation phase in 2020. The ACTRIS implementation project, ACTRIS IMP, will take ACTRIS into a new level of maturity and will set the needed structures for the implementation actions, both at the national and European level. ACTRIS IMP builds on three main pillars: securing the long-term sustainability, implementing of ACTRIS functionalities, and positioning ACTRIS in the national, European and international science and innovation landscape. ACTRIS IMP will enable ACTRIS to respond to the users’ needs and requirements.