ACCENT-PLUS

Atmospheric Composition Change: the European Network-Policy Support and Science

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

Fragmentation of research efforts, lack of a shared scientific vision and insufficient availability of research tools, shared databases, etc., is a major limitation for the understanding of atmospheric composition change over Europe under a changing climate, and the consequent inadequate transfer of prospects to the decision makers for future policies. The ACCENT-Plus project builds on the successful efforts of the Network of Excellence ACCENT which, over the past six years, has brought together the atmospheric science community engaged in global change and air pollution studies. The integration efforts within the ACCENT Network have produced a stronger cohesion of the community, including research groups from the new EU Member States and have facilitated the engagement of a new generation of scientists who have started their career in the collaborative environment promoted by ACCENT. ACCENT-Plus aims at extending the breath of the previous ACCENT phase to reach out to the policy community, facilitating the transfer of research results into policy/decision making. A prerequisite to reach this goal is to continue fostering the coordination and integration of the European science community, associating with this new effort all partners and associates of the previous ACCENT phase. Joint research programming, contribution to the international research agenda, access to information, training/mobility activities and facilitation in the use of research infrastructures will be key elements of ACCENT-Plus to preserve and enhance the excellence of European research in an ERA context, to produce integrated assessment and synthesis of scientific results and to connect science and policy making by transferring to the decision makers the important links between air quality and climate change and the prospects and benefits of co-control policies.

Introduzione (Teaser)

Cutting-edge research in climate change, supported by a new online platform of researchers from around the globe, is empowering European policymakers to help safeguard our planet.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Climate change in Europe, particularly the change in atmospheric composition, is proving difficult to evaluate due to disparate research initiatives, lack of vision and unavailability of research tools. This drastically interferes with governments' abilities to create policies that address such a serious environmental challenge. To overcome these barriers, the EU-funded project 'Atmospheric composition change: the European network-policy support and science' (Accent-PLUS) is facilitating the transformation of research results into policies.

The project is building on previous efforts of the Accent initiative, which has brought together leaders in the atmospheric science community. Accent-PLUS is enhancing collaboration in the field by upgrading European global change and air quality research within the context of the European Research Area (ERA). Through links with other global research projects and by linking to powerful databases, the project is delving into key air quality and climatic related topics such as ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen cycle and methane.

To date, Accent-PLUS has furthered its research significantly through major conferences and workshops on climate change research held across Europe, as well as in Israel and the United States. It has published several papers and reports, in addition to participating in the EU air policy review process led by the European Commission.

Vigorous dissemination of the project's results is also taking place through the project's web portal, which is constantly being updated with new data and findings. The portal also serves as a permanent platform to enlarge the Accent-PLUS community and reach out to research institutions around the globe, an initiative that has already borne fruit.

Currently, the project is preparing invaluable publications on four major policy topics, namely tropospheric ozone, global nitrogen cycle, atmospheric methane budget and particulate matter. The process is gradually involving policymakers, national governments, EU representatives, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders in a bid to build a comprehensive vision and foster consensus on the topic.

The work of Accent-PLUS will lead to an unprecedented level of research on climate change, helping Europe and even other regions of the world address this pressing phenomenon.