CARE-C to lead development of first doctoral network dedicated to atmospheric mineral dust in Europe

The Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of The Cyprus Institute is proud to announce its coordination of the new Horizon Europe Project entitled ‘Doctoral Network on Atmospheric Dust’ (Dust-DN), which secured funding of 3.5 million under the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks program. Awarded with full marks within a very competitive evaluation and selection, this initiative aims to train the next generation of scientists in the field of atmospheric dust.

Atmospheric dust is one of the most visible and detectable aspects of the transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, affecting visibility, radiation, and climate. Despite its obvious presence in the atmosphere, the fundamental properties of atmospheric dust remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to develop accurate models and harness the societal benefits of better predictions. The Dust-DN project aims to bridge this knowledge gap by creating the first doctoral network dedicated to atmospheric mineral dust on a European scale, combining expertise and multidisciplinary approaches.

It is a strategic, international, and intersectoral alliance of high-profile partners that will drive innovation in understanding the fundamental properties of dust and in predicting its socio-economic impacts. By training a cohort of early-career scientists within a network of academic and non-academic partners, Dust-DN will address critical gaps in the field through the following research objectives:

1. Advancing the understanding of the fundamentals of dust microphysical properties and processes.
2. Identifying the influence of source regions on atmospheric dust properties.
3. Assessing the socio-economic impacts of dust on health, aviation, and energy production.
4. Investigating dust within the global climate system.

Project Partners and Participants

The Dust-DN project brings together 8 core partners and 15 associated partners, including 5 non-academic institutions, ensuring a broad range of expertise and facilities to address the complex challenges posed by atmospheric dust. The core participating institutes are The Cyprus Institute (CyI) – Project Coordinator, the University of Évora (UÉ) from Portugal, the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) from Greece, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) from Spain, the Technical University of Darmstadt (TUDa) from Germany, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) also from Germany, the University of Reading (UREAD) from United Kingdom, and the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos – World Radiation Center (PMOD-WRC) from Switzerland.

The associated partners include five universities: the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) andthe Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) both from Greece, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) from Spain, the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) from Switzerland and the Khalifa University from United Arab Emirates; five research institutions, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) from Germany, the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence from Cyprus, the Center of Allergy and Environment (ZAUM) from Germany, the Centro Académico Clínico do Alentejo (C-TRAIL) from Portugal,the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas – Plataforma Solar de Almería (CIEMAT-PSA) from Spain, one agency of the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a national meteorological service the Met Office (MetO) from the United Kingdom, and three private companies, the Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (RR) a British multinational aerospace and defence company, the Earnst and Young (EY) Cyprus part of the global EY brand and the Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties (GRASP) from France.

This diverse partnership ensures a wide range of expertise, facilities, and geographic coverage, critical for addressing the complex challenges posed by atmospheric dust.

The Dust-DN project kickoff meeting will take place on 20 January 2025, marking the launch of this ambitious initiative. Participants will present the project’s objectives, methodologies, and timeline. To foster public engagement, the public part of the kickoff meeting will be in the form of pre-recorded videos presenting the project and its partners. It will be made available on the official YouTube channel of Dust-DN :

For more details about the Dust-DN project and to follow its progress, visit the project website at https://dust-dn.cyi.ac.cy/.

For any queries please contact:

• Prof. Franco Marenco (English inquiries): f.marenco (at) cyi.ac.cy
• Dr. Kostas Fragkos (Greek inquiries): k.fragkos (at) cyi.ac.cy

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101168425, as well as two national agencies: UKRI in the United Kingdom and SERI in Switzerland.