DANUBIUS
DANUBIUS-RI will be a pan-European distributed research infrastructure supporting interdisciplinary research on large river-sea systems. Surface waters have a key role in global biogeochemical cycles, food and energy production, and societal wellbeing. They face pressures from natural and anthropogenic driven environmental perturbations at local and global scales. European research on river-sea systems and their transitional environments is world- leading but fragmented, largely discipline-specific and often geographically isolated.
The lack of interdisciplinary research infrastructures has fuelled this fragmentation. DANUBIUS-RI will fill the gap, drawing on existing research excellence across Europe, enhancing the impact of European research while maximising the return on investment. It will provide access to a range of European river-sea systems, facilities and expertise; a ‘one-stop shop’ for knowledge exchange in managing river-sea systems; access to harmonised data; and a platform for interdisciplinary research, inspiration, education and training.
The research infrastructure will comprise a Hub and a Data Centre in Romania, a Technology Transfer Office in Ireland, and Supersites and Nodes across Europe. The Hub will provide leadership, coordination, and key scientific, educational and analytical capabilities. Supersites will be designated natural sites that provide the focus for observation, research and modelling at locations of high scientific importance and utilizing a range of opportunities to study RS systems from river source to coastal sea. Nodes will be centres of expertise providing facilities and services, data storage and provision, experimental and in situ measurements facilities, state-of-the-art analytical capabilities and implementation of standardised procedures and quality control (the DANUBIUS Commons).
This structure will enable DANUBIUS-RI to build on existing expertise and synergies to support world-leading interdisciplinary research and innovation in freshwater-marine research.