MEET, the huge PNRR project for the study of Italy's tectonic evolution, kicks off

Tuesday 15 November is the date for the Kick-Off Meeting of the MEET (Monitoring Earth's Evolution and Tectonics) infrastructure project.

The event will take place from 10.30 a.m. at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Rome and it will be possible to follow the live streaming on YouTube. With this meeting, the studies on the tectonics of Italy funded by the Ministry of University and Research under Mission 4 'Education and Research of the PNRR - Next Generation EU officially begins. 

MEET is aimed at improving and implementing scientific networks dedicated to Earth monitoring and observation. In addition to INGV, which is the coordinator, eight other Italian research institutions will be involved in the project: the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, the Università degli Studi Roma Tre, the Università di Genova and the Università degli Studi di Trieste. 

MEET is part of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) of which INGV is the lead partner and hosts the headquarters of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). The Italian EPOS scientific community has organised itself into the EPOS-Italy Joint Research Unit (JRU), which brings together many of the organisations and universities that are co-proponents of the MEET project. 

There are four main objectives of the project, financed by a total budget of EUR 43 million 

1. the technological upgrade of large observation networks and scientific laboratories
2. the development of two natural observatories (the Pizzi Deneri Observatory on Etna and Sos Enattos in Sardinia)
3. new implementations of scientific instrumentation in the Strait of Messina area, in Irpinia and the southern Ionian area
4. the implementation of innovative IT service platforms for science and society by sharing new resources, collected data and research products with the entire international scientific community in the Italian Portal for Earth Sciences, by principles codified at the European level, such as Open Access and FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable). In this sense, the integration of new resources at an international level is envisaged, also through the implementation of the Italian Portal for Earth Sciences.

To consult the programme see the website https://meet.ingv.it/