In November 2020, the European Commission released the evaluations and funding decisions of the applications to the INFRAIA-03-2020 call. The national Ruisdael Observatory for atmospheric research participates in ATMO-ACCESS, a project that was funded in this call. The aim of this action is to facilitate access to the best European research infrastructures of different but close communities gathered in larger domains, ensuring their optimal use and the common improvement of their services.
ATMO-ACCESS is the organized response of distributed atmospheric research facilities for developing a pilot for a new model of Integrating Activities. The project will deliver a series of recommendations for establishing a comprehensive and sustainable framework for access to distributed atmospheric Research Infrastructures (RI), ensuring integrated access to and optimised use of the services they provide. ATMO-ACCESS mobilizes extensive resources in the atmospheric RIs communities to engage into harmonizing access procedures in relation to policies, financial regulations, and conditions for access. It will develop and test innovative modalities of access to facilities and complementary and more advanced services, including digital services, developed as part of cross-RI efforts. ATMO-ACCESS will open physical and remote access to 43 operational European atmospheric research facilities, including ground-based observation stations, simulation chambers, but also mobile facilities and central laboratories that are fundamental elements in distributed RIs. Innovative cross-RI cloud services, addressing the management of data produced via access and the use of new, integrated data products, but also virtual tools for training, are offered through virtual access to RI data centres.
The ATMO-ACCESS project has now reached the stage of Grant Agreement preparation. The total funding is 15M€ for the period 2021-2025.
