Annual Conference and Start Event of ACTRIS-D

On 20-22 June 2022, around 110 stakeholders from science and politics met in Leipzig to discuss current research topics of ACTRIS-D - the German contribution to ACTRIS. After numerous online meetings, the annual conference was the first opportunity for personal exchange among the partners. The official start of ACTRIS-D was celebrated with a ceremonial act on 21 June. In their welcoming speeches, Mario Brandenburg (Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and Sebastian Gemkow (Minister of State for Science at the Saxon State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism) emphasised the importance of ACTRIS for the society and assured their support. The governmental agencies DWD (German Meteorological Service) and UBA (German Environment Agency) highlighted the value of ACTRIS data to improve their services. Eija Juurola sent greetings from the Head Office to the ACTRIS-D community per video.

Eleven German institutions collaborate in ACTRIS-D, including universities, non-university research institutions and public authorities. The German part of ACTRIS is coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig (www.tropos.de).

With the adoption of ACTRIS-D to the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, Germany had committed itself to participating in the European research infrastructure in 2019. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the implementation of ACTRIS-D as part of the "Research for Sustainability" (FONA) strategy with 86 million euros for upgrading the 25 National Facilities and 12 Topical Centre units. In addition, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) will make an important contribution by funding the operation of the German Topical Centre units in ACTRIS with more than 2 million euros per year in the long term.