ENVRI-Hub NEXT, coordinated by EGI, has embarked on a mission to bring the gateway to interdisciplinary environmental research data - ENVRI-Hub - to the NEXT level. Launched on February 1, 2024, and funded by Horizon Europe under Call: HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01, the project convenes a consortium of 21 partners for a face-to-face meeting at the EGI Foundation in Amsterdam’s Science Park from February 6 to 8, 2024.

The consortium comprises ten environmental ESFRI Research Infrastructures (ENVRIs) and additional e-infrastructure partners. EGI, with its extensive experience in project coordination, serves as the project coordinator, overseeing the overall implementation. In addition, EGI leads efforts in communication, exploitation, and training and contributes to WP5/6 with SMS and architecture definition, WP11/12 with AAI activities and EOSC interoperability, and WP13/14 Analytical Framework, deployment of notebooks and Essential Climate Variables (ECV) workflows based integration. EGI also leads WP15, providing the requirements and guidelines to ensure the action complies with ethical principles and applicable EU, international and national laws. It will consult the independent Ethics Board to ensure that results and research carried out are in line with requirements and practices set out for the project and in agreement with Article 14, Annex 5 of the Grant Agreement.

In response to the growing demand for environmental scientific knowledge, ENVRI-Hub NEXT seeks to expand the frontiers of multidisciplinary environmental sciences. By fostering operational synergies between environmental research infrastructures and leveraging complementarities in data and services provision, the project aims to enhance the integration of cutting-edge information technology and contribute to a more integrated, productive, and globally competitive ENVRI Science Cluster.

ENVRI-Hub NEXT addresses the need for easy and fast access to reliable, long-term, and high-quality environmental data. The project builds on the success of previous cluster projects (ENVRI, ENVRIplus, ENVRI-FAIR) and aims to further integrate ENVRIs across subdomains (Atmosphere, Marine, Solid Earth, and Biodiversity/Ecosystems). This integration is crucial for leveraging the full potential of the ENVRI cluster for integrated environmental research.

To transform integrated Earth observation into a concept for a global climate observation system, ENVRI-Hub NEXT aligns with the World Meteorological Organisation's set of Essential Climate Variables (ECV). These variables provide empirical evidence crucial for understanding and predicting climate evolution, guiding mitigation and adaptation measures, assessing risks, attributing climatic events, and underpinning climate services.

The project is set to run until January 2027, contributing to the European Open Science Cloud and promoting collaboration across environmental research infrastructures.

Contact Envri-hub-next-po@mailman.egi.eu for more information.

The website will be soon launched at www.envri-hub-next.eu, in the meantime, discover the ENVRI-Hub.