IGOSP will continuously collaborate with GEO activities and other ongoing national programs to establish world-class research infrastructures related to persistent pollutants. In particular, the national programs that will be considered are: national efforts aimed at supporting GMOS and GMP for mercury and POP that contribute to GEO activities; Fund for investments in scientific and technological research (FIRST) which aims to support the main national efforts in EO infrastructures and research programs in Italy; National programs in support of EMEP under the UNECE-LRTAP convention; Long-term national programs aiming to support WMO-GAW sites within regional networks in Europe (e.g. EMEP, AMAP), Canada (e.g. CAMNet), USA (e.g. AMNet) and Asia, with new constitution in areas remote both at high altitudes and at sea level, as well as at different latitudes; long-term monitoring networks for monitoring POPs in the atmosphere under GMP include Global Air Passive Sampling (GAPS) on a global scale, Monitoring Networks (MONET) and Latin American Atmospheric Passive Sampling Network (LAPAN) on regional scale (Europe, Africa, Asia and South America); POP monitoring.

IGOSP will adopt a methodology aimed at integrating the real-time monitoring of persistent pollutants derived from different platforms in an advanced interoperable data infrastructure for sharing data and delivering web services. To this end, IGOSP will develop and further improve existing sensors, explore new sensor frontiers based on nanotechnology, and build, test and validate sensors and multisensor platforms. The combination of different sensor technologies in environmental monitoring will certainly provide further information on the dynamic mechanisms of the pollutant cycle, as well as improved monitoring reliability. IGOSP will analyze the current research and innovation programs on Earth observation in the field of persistent pollutants and will define the level of fragmentation and the possibility of integration in order to reach the critical mass necessary to strengthen the European contribution to the key areas of EO. IGOSP is focused on the ERA-PLANET Strand-3 whose general objective is to develop a new paradigm for real-time monitoring of the quality of our environment with reference to the contamination of air, water and terrestrial ecosystems by persistent pollutants.