The National Research Council of Italy (CNR) is a public organization whose mission is to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge growth and of its applications for the scientific, technological, economic and social development.
Within the CNR, the Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies (DTA, www.dta.cnr.it) delivers independent research, survey, technologies and knowledge transfer in the Earth and environmental sciences to advance knowledge of the planet as a complex and interacting system. Research activities cover the full range of the Earth science, including atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic issues.
As part of the DTA, the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR, www.ismar.cnr.it) and the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IAMC, www.iamc.cnr.it) drive coastal research activities based on observation and modelling, for a variety of complementary purposes. These purposes include the definition of climate variability and its impacts on biodiversity, an integrated approach to coastal zone management and a problem-solving approach in partnership with industry.
CNR participates to or coordinates the following international projects/programmes: ECOOP, SEADATANET, EuroGOOS, MOON, MyOcean, SESAME, HERMES, SPICOSA, SARDONE, NEAREST, ADRICOSM STAR, ESONET, HERMIONE, EMMA Life, EUROFleet, EnvEurope in the Life Plus Programme. Moreover, CNR participates to the Italian projects: VECTOR for climate changes, biodiversity and sustainability of the coastal zone, PRIMI for the Monitoring of Marine Pollution by Hydrocarbons, CoastSat for the hazard analysis for coastal monitoring and forecasting. CNR is member of the National Operative Oceanographic Group (GNOO) and of the National Group for Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER).
On behalf of the Ministry for Education and Research, CNR manages the Italian participation to SEAS-ERA, having the leadership of the Working Package for the human capacity building. CNR is managing and operating instrumented research vessels continuously cruising during the year, a system of buoys/platforms, moorings, laboratories, coastal radars and also develops technologies and instrumentation for marine research. Most of the mentioned observatories are operational, some are pre-operational and others will be soon implemented. In this context, CNR is consolidating a national network of observatories in the Sicily Channel, the North Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic Sea.
