The European environmental research infrastructures
A research infrastructure (RI) is an organization that enables the research community to use specific facilities, resources and services in order to accelerate scientific achievements and promote sustainable research. The current ENVRI Community brings together 26 European Research Infrastructures that are studying different aspects of the Earth system.
Research infrastructures studying air aim to define the processes that influence the composition of the earth’s atmosphere – from the lower troposphere to the magnetosphere.
Atmosphere
Fourteen Research Infrastructures are listed on the latest edition of the ESFRI Roadmap, which means they are the most advanced ones in their operations and the services they offer. The environmental research infrastructures are providing high-quality, open and FAIR in situ data from the different components of the Earth system from the four domains of the earth system:
Ecosystem
Many of our research infrastructures are operating in and on the water, whether it is seawater that is studied from the sea floor up to the surface, freshwater in rivers and lakes, or water in its solid form known as the cryosphere.
Marine
Earth is not an isolated system and thus, land, air, living species, and water are interacting with each other. as such, many of our research infrastructures study phenomena that involve several of these components.
Multidomain
There are research infrastructures studying our land – from the deepest interior where they investigate the internal structure and dynamics of planet earth up to agricultural, urban or pristine land on the earth’s surface.
Solid Earth
The ENVRI community collaboration represents a powerful and holistic approach to studying the Earth System, advancing the scientific knowledge which is necessary to be able to deal with rapid global change that affects our society and our planet.
Research infrastructures studying life on earth focus on ecosystems and the interactions between the biological, physical and chemical processes affecting their viability.