A kick-off event held at the headquarters of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) marked the start of the MEET (Monitoring Earth’s Evolution and Tectonics) project.
Funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under Component 2 – “From Research to Business”, Mission 4 – “Education and Research”, of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the project aims to improve and implement scientific networks for Earth monitoring and observation.
Coordinated by INGV, MEET also involves the National Research Council (CNR), the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Bari Aldo Moro, the University of Roma Tre, the University of Genoa and the University of Trieste.
The overall objective of the project is to innovate the Italian multidisciplinary observation system and create a research infrastructure fully open to the scientific community. MEET will contribute to the understanding of natural hazards with the aim of adopting effective mitigation actions and improving our resilience.
Specifically, a total budget of 43 million euro will be used to fund four main objectives:
- technological upgrade of large observation networks and scientific laboratories
- development of two natural observatories (Pizzi Deneri observatory on Mt Etna and Sos Enattos in Sardinia)
- new implementations of scientific instrumentation in the Strait of Messina area, in Irpinia and in the southern Ionian area
- implementation of innovative IT service platforms for science and society by sharing new resources, collected data and research products with the entire international scientific community in the Italian Portal for Earth Sciences, in accordance with principles codified at European level, such as Open Access and FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable).
