Finnish environmental RIs get new funding

The Academy of Finland will continue funding the Finnish research infrastructures. The INAR RI consortia "Integrated Atmospheric and Earth System Research Infrastructure: Integrated observations for effective climate solutions in terrestrial ecosystems" has received funding of 3.7 M€ for the 2022–2025 period.

The funding will support research in several fields: meteorology and atmospheric sciences, climate research, environmental science, forest sciences and ecology, evolutionary biology and ecophysiology.

The consortia are built on the national networks of environmental RI. This Finnish collaboration between the RIs is unique at the European scale and shows the value of integration and colocation of RIs at the same sites (17 co-located sites out of 30 sites in total).

INAR RI brings together the national partners in ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure), eLTER (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, Critical Zone & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure) and AnaEE (Infrastructure for Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) and integrates the nationally operated facilities into a benchmarking RI in the atmosphere–ecosystem domain.

This project has three main aims supporting the development of the RI: 1) development of long-term high-quality environmental observations for better quantification of land carbon sinks and related climate impacts, 2) further integration of the environmental measurements and 3) development of services related to data and access to better respond to user needs. The project activities and data produced via INAR RI are relevant to the green transition and support the achievement of the national carbon neutrality target.