International programs and Cooperation

The international activity in which the CNR-IIA is involved is becoming increasingly important through extra-European research programs and the establishment of a unit for international scientific cooperation.

The Institute is involved in many international programs, including as a national representative, relating to air pollution and environmental sustainability, the development of strategies and technologies aimed at controlling and mitigating impacts as well as the transfer of knowledge to policy makers and stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of environmental legislation. As a national representative for European directives (ie, IED-IPPC, REACH, GPP) and international treaties (ie, UNECE-CLRTAP, Minamata, Stockholm, Basel) on air pollution, it ensures, also through the coordination of specific groups of work, the transfer of knowledge to political decision-makers on the various inherent aspects, just to name a few, the emissions of pollutants from anthropogenic and natural sources, technologies and methodologies for abatement of emissions and monitoring of air quality, the development of technologies innovative solutions for data quality control and information sharing.

The leadership position held by many researchers and technologists in the context of European and international programs and projects allows the Institute to guide future strategic choices in the various sectors of environmental research. As part of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) aimed at developing GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), the researchers and technologists of the Institute play a key role both in relation to the development of observational systems on a global scale and in the definition of strategies and technologies aimed at ensuring the sharing of geospatial information on environmental quality and sustainability. In this context, the GMOS system (Global Mercury Observation System - www.gmos.eu) which is a global-scale observation system for monitoring mercury pollution.

The Institute actively participates in major international programs aimed at developing cyber (e) infrastructure for the sharing of environmental information, the development of thesauri in the various domains of the Earth Observation, the extraction of information in relation to various issues relating to pollution. atmospheric and environmental as well as the complex process of preparing and implementing environmental policies. These include the programs of NSF-Earth Cube (BCube project), Research Data Alliance (Brokering Governance), Belmont Forum (e-Infrastructure and Data Management), INSPIRE (metadata), Open Geospatial Consortium (Earth System Science for netCDF); moreover, it contributes to many European initiatives and projects aimed at the design and development of digital infrastructures for inter and cross disciplinary research in the field of Earth and Space Sciences. The overall objective of the Institute is to contribute to scientific progress and technological innovation by actively participating in the European Research Area and strengthening the ability to transfer research results to large sectors of the Public Administration (national and international) and to Companies in order to rewrite a new paradigm of socio-economic development by combining the protection of quality and environmental sustainability with an advanced model of knowledge sharing and green economy for the benefit of future generations.