The European Commission has taken a decision to establish the ACTRIS-ERIC consortium. Its aim is to concretise a long-term effort by several European countries to create a sustainable infrastructure supporting atmospheric and climate research. Poland is one of the 17 founding members of the consortium. The UW is represented in this group by Prof. Iwona Stachlewska from the Institute of Geophysics.

The consortium was founded on 25th April. The ACTRIS-ERIC will facilitate access to a broad range of technologies, services, and resources in the field of atmospheric science.

An ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) status endows research infrastructures with a legal personality recognised in all EU Member States. As part of an international organisation, the member countries contribute scientifically and financially to the consortium.

ACTRIS facilities make up the largest, multi-site atmospheric research infrastructure in the world. All users, regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise, or field of activity, can benefit from ACTRIS pan-European open access services. The members of the consortium are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Greece and the UK expressed interest in joining at later stages. Finland will host the Statutory Seat and manage the overall coordination of the ACTRIS and Italy will manage the access to ACTRIS services. The member states demonstrate atmospheric and air quality research as a national priority for at least the next five years.

“Thanks to concentrated international cooperation, in just ten years we have been able to build and make operational state-of-the-art scientific instruments that open up unprecedented opportunities for breakthrough discoveries,” says Paolo Laj, Interim ACTRIS Scientific Chair. “ACTRIS is consolidating its position in the national, European, and international landscapes, expanding its role as a key player supporting environmental research.”

The ACTRIS-ERIC’s beginnings date back to 2011. Every year, over 5000 users distributed around 50 countries in the world use the ACTRIS data for their research, enabling reliable atmospheric predictions, including short-term hazardous weather and health warnings as well as long-term evaluation of climate change.