WP8

Each European environmental Research Infrastructure addresses specific issues, focusing on the atmospheric or marine domain, biosphere or geosphere. However, the Earth System depends on the interconnectedness of all domains, and interactions take place on all space and time scales. Emergent environmental questions thus need to be tackled with system-thinking and cross-disciplinary approaches. The activities of WP8 use data, information and knowledge generated by the individual RI to create a system of Virtual Research Environments (VRE), following the LifeWatch ERIC approach, and provide services where RIs from different domains are harmonized to deal with scientifically and societally relevant topics. This systemic approach will support the Italian role in several RIs and help taking a leading role to address complex, multi-disciplinary challenges.

For each selected topic, a VRE will be implemented. VREs are new eScience facilities that address scientific and applied questions requiring serious effort in data harmonization, analysis, modelling and computational power. The needed data will continuously flow from the individual RIs and the information gaps will be filled through the new instrumentation acquired in ITINERIS. VREs are planned with a modular structure with semantic services for data discovery, harmonization and interoperability, data analysis and modelling services and workflows. Data, analysis and modelling tools will be integrated allowing users to gain insight into the problems at hand and add their own data and analysis methods to respond to changing needs. Interaction and integration with other projects, dealing with other components of the Earth System, is also envisaged.