NATURE

The NATURE project is an initiative aimed at strengthening the environmental Research Infrastructures (RIs) ecosystem in Italy, capitalizing on the results of the previous PNRR project, ITINERIS. The main purpose of NATURE is to foster cross-disciplinary research, technology transfer, and innovation in the environmental sciences sector, with a focus on the economic and social development of Southern Italy regions and support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The existing IT infrastructure will be transformed into an integrated hub, offering open and free access to interoperable data (in accordance with FAIR principles), metadata, digital services, and Virtual Research Environments (VREs) to address challenges such as climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity protection. By networking 12 major environmental research infrastructures (including ACTRIS as lead partner, EMSO, ICOS, LIFEWATCH, Euro-Argo, and DANUBIUS), the goal is to harmonize observation and data management across the atmospheric, m Seas and Oceans, Geological processes, Disaster risk arine, and terrestrial ecosystem domains.