The Italian scientific community officially established a Joint Research Unit (JRU) with collaboration agreement signed in recent days by 15 institutes, centers, and universities that have agreed to support and promote Italy’s participation in the ICOS RI.
This is a very important signal, where the main protagonists in Italian climate change research have formally committed to work together towards sharing expertise, data, and the systems required to process and use the data in scientific and educational activities.
Italy’s role in the ICOS RI is highly regarded and very relevant with regard to activities that relate to monitoring CO2 and other greenhouse gases on a European level. In particular, within the ICOS-RI framework, Italy participates with its observation stations and atmosphere data collection through the Monte Cimone, Lampedusa, Potenza, and Plateau Rosa sites as well as with its ecosystems through the Castelporziano, Borgo Cioffi, Renon, Negrisia, Monte Bondone, Capodimonte, Arca di Noè, Bosco Fontana, and Torgnon sites. In addition to that, Italy has marine sites located in Miramare, Paloma, E2M3A in the Adriatic, and the W1M3A in the Tyrrhenian sea. Importance of Italian participation in the European network is also highlighted by the hosting of the ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Centre - ETC (based in Viterbo at the University of Tuscia and the CMCC - Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change), the center towards which all data from the ICOSRI ecosystem sites converge and which is responsible for data processing and quality control, methodological developments, training, and network coordination.
The collaboration agreement regarding the implementation of research and development in the field of infrastructures involving research on the carbon cycle through the JRU, commonly called ICOS-IT (ICOS Italy), was signed by: the National Research Council (CNR), the CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, the Council for Research in Agriculture and Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA) of the Val d’Aosta, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM), the University of Sassari, the University of Padua, the University of Genoa, the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), the Free University of Bozen, and the University of Udine.
For more information on the ICOS-IT:
Enrico Brugnoli (JRU ICOS-IT Coordinator) enrico.brugnoli@cnr.it
Carlo Calfapietra (ICOS Italy Focal Point) carlo.calfapietra@ibaf.cnr.it
Dario Papale (ETC Director) darpap@unitus.it
Mauro Buonocore (Press Office) mauro.buonocore@cmcc.it