The establishment of ACTRIS ERIC concretizes a long-term effort by several European countries to create a sustainable infrastructure supporting atmospheric and climate research. With ACTRIS, doors are open for researchers, industry, and countries to access to key information on the state of the atmosphere, to share the best research platforms in Europe and to support policy-making with necessary scientific expertise.

The European Commission has taken a long-anticipated decision to establish the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, or ERIC¹. Seventeen (17) founding countries are pooling resources to open access to a broad range of technologies, services, and resources in the field of the atmospheric science. The decision and the ERIC statutes have now been published in the EU Official Journal.

ACTRIS entered its journey towards ACTRIS-ERIC as early as 2011, achieving important scientific and technical milestones that led to deeper understanding of the driving forces of climate change and air pollution. Monitoring the spatial and temporal variability of short-lived atmospheric constituents (aerosol, clouds, and trace gases) from 80 observation platforms in Europe and beyond over more than a decade provided unprecedented views of effectiveness of emission reduction policies in Europe but also highlighted the complex feedback mechanisms acting on the climate system.  Hundreds of researchers Worldwide but also users from the private sector accessed the ACTRIS platforms (observation site, atmospheric simulation chambers) to perform novel experiments improving scientific knowledge, develop new instruments or got trained on new technologies. Every year, over 5000 users distributed around 50 countries in the World use the ACTRIS data for their research, enabling reliable atmospheric predictions, including short-term hazardous weather and health warnings as well as long-term evaluation of climate change.

ACTRIS facilities make up the largest, multi-site atmospheric research infrastructure in the world. ACTRIS offers its users open access to instruments, expertise, training opportunities, and FAIR³ data management services. All users, regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise, or field of activity, can benefit from ACTRIS pan-European open access services. ACTRIS aims at increasing the excellence in Earth system observation and research by providing information and knowledge for developing sustainable solutions to societal needs. All ACTRIS services are accessible via http://www.actris.eu.

With its ERIC status, ACTRIS is now legally recognized as a European Research Infrastructure² providing ACTRIS with a stable legal structure.

The establishment of ACTRIC ERIC manifests the fast progress of ACTRIS from a project-based network to a mature and sustainable research infrastructure. Finland will host the Statutory Seat and manage the overall coordination of ACTRIS and Italy will manage the access to ACTRIS services.

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