Towards Harmonised Environmental Research: The Role of ITINERIS in Integrating Italian Research Infrastructures

Environmental challenges, such as pollution, land-use transformations, climate change and their consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem stability, represent some of the most urgent issues facing society today.

Given the complexity of such problems, a multi-disciplinary approach to the Earth System is essential to provide quantitative knowledge to be translated into concrete, efficient, timely and applicable strategies. This approach involves integrating and combining field observations, experimental activities in the laboratory, data analysis and modelling tools across different environmental domains, with Research Infrastructures (RIs) playing a crucial role in delivering the systematic and coherent information required for high-level research.

According to the National Research Infrastructure Plan (PNIR) 2021 - 2027, Italy actively participates in the main pan-European environmental RIs and hosts numerous RIs of national relevance, occupying a privileged position to make a significant contribution in the environmental domain. In fact, in Italy, RIs in the environmental domain account for 17% of the total including European, global and national RIs.

However, the diversity and variety of these RIs requires coordinated efforts to foster their integration, connection and harmonisation in order to maximise their impact on environmental research and sustainability strategies.

To achieve this coordination and build a unified framework for environmental research in Italy, 22 RIs have joined forces under the ITINERIS (Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructure System) thematic network. ITINERIS focuses on facilitating the observation and study of Earth system processes across the atmosphere, marine, terrestrial biosphere, and geosphere domains.

A key aspect of ITINERIS is the ITINERIS HUB, a single access point that integrates and expands the array of resources available in the catalogues across the participating RIs, enhance accessibility, and foster multidisciplinary collaborations among the scientific community and various public and private stakeholders, nationally and internationally.

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of existing RI resource catalogues, evaluating their structure, scope, and criteria for resource selection.

The analysis assesses consistency, identifies gaps and overlaps, and evaluates the metadata schemas and search functionality of the catalogues to ensure harmonisation into the ITINERIS HUB.

The analysis provides a detailed resource mapping of each RI, highlighting alignment with the resource categories defined by ITINERIS, such as providers, services, datasets, research products, training resources and virtual research environments (VREs). The maturity and accessibility of resources are assessed using standardised metrics and visualized through tabular and visual formats, including radar charts, providing a clear overview of the current status of each catalogue.

Results of this study show a considerable variability in the maturity levels of the RIs' catalogues: some have fully developed and resource-rich catalogues, others have partial catalogues with a limited number of resources, while some are still in the early stages of development or have no entries at all.

This systematic analysis identifies gaps and proposes targeted solutions for better integration and harmonisation in the ITINERIS HUB, paving the way for a more cohesive, efficient and accessible research ecosystem.

Acknowledgement: the research has been funded by EU - Next Generation EU Mission 4,  Component 2 - CUP B53C22002150006 - Project IR0000032 – ITINERIS - Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System