The European infrastructure for real-time monitoring of bioaerosols: collaborative solutions of AutoPollen Programme and SYLVA project

The presence of aerosols of biological origin in the atmosphere is one of the key factors affecting the quality of human life on a daily basis. The spread and diversity of bioaerosols are heavily influenced by anthropogenic activity and significantly modulated by changing climate. A constantly growing number of allergy sufferers in Europe sets new demands to available information about the aeroallergen sources and their evolution. The existing monitoring activities and practices for bioaerosol observations are very fragmented and country specific. Limited access to the highly demanding manual counts slows down cross-disciplinary research and development of prevention measures (effective strategies) to minimize the environmental bioaerosol impact. At the same time, the recent technological progress in the automatic particle counters paved the way to the volunteering consolidation of European aerobiologists to establish and to drive the EUMETNET AutoPollen Programme (www.autopollen.ne). The extremely active collaboration within AutoPollen set a solid background for the dedicated innovative project SYLVA (A SYstem for reaL-time obserVation of Aeroallergens, https://sylva.bioaerosol.eu). Development of the standards and guidelines for the aeroallergen measurements within AutoPollen and technological solutions within SYLVA (newly created and updated and verified existing solutions) are integrated in a complex synergy of the prototype of European network and infrastructure for the real-time monitoring of bioaerosols.