ITINERIS

ITINERIS – Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System – will build the Italian Hub of Research Infrastructures (RIs) in the environmental scientific domain for the observation and study of environmental processes in the atmosphere, marine domain, terrestrial biosphere, and geosphere, providing access to data and services and supporting the Country to address current and expected environmental challenges. ITINERIS coordinates a network of national nodes from 22 RIs (18 from the environmental domain, 2 from agri-food with strong link with the environment and 2 from the PSE domain, supporting services for the marine domain).

The main goal is to develop cross-disciplinary research in environmental sciences through the use and re-use of existing (or pre-operational) data and services and new observations, to address scientifically and societally relevant issues such as sustainable use of natural resources, implementation of Nature-Based Solutions, Green and Blue Economy, pollution reduction, critical zone and ecosystem management and restoration, carbon cycle, mitigation of the downstream effects of climate and environmental change. ITINERIS will have significant impact on national environmental research, providing scientific support to the design of actionable environmental strategies. ITINERIS adopts a whole-system, cross-disciplinary approach to the Earth System and its changes, allowing users to benefit from the integrated system of RIs and the knowledge it produces. This broad-scale vision of environmental research, sustained by the main Italian environmental scientists involved in European RIs, is truly innovative and it will support our Country in taking a leading role in European environmental research, designing the framework for the next decades.

IRET coordinates the project work-packages dedicated to the Terrestrial Biosphere RIs and the Training program for current and next generation RIs’ participants. It is also the responsible entity for three RIs involved in the project: ICOS, ANAEE and LIFEWATCH.

Photo by Luca Sessa.