There are seven participants in DARECLIMED. They are:

• The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus)
• Jordan Ministry of transport - Jordan Meteorological Department
  
• Academy of Athens (Greece)
• Tel-Aviv University (Israel)
  
• The Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
• The University of Crete (Greece)
• The Istanbul Technical University (Turkey)

The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus)

Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre

The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit, non-governmental, research and educational institution, created in Cyprus in January 2005, with a scientific and technological orientation. Its development is planned in several successive phases, starting with the creation of cross disciplinary research centers, to be followed with the establishment of a graduate and undergraduate college.

The Institute operates under the aegis of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CREF). The first centre that became operational, the Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre (EEWRC), is being developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The formal inauguration of the EEWRC took place in December 2007.

EEWRC is currently involved in a number of research projects, three of which are particularly relevant in the context of DARECLIMED:

• the EU-funded project Comprehensive Modelling of the Earth System for Better Climate Prediction and Projection (COMBINE)
• a project funded by the ERC: Consistent computation of the chemistry-cloud continuum and climate change in Cyprus (C8)
• an internally funded project Climate Change and Impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (CIMME).

The Computation based Science and Technology Research Centre (CaSToRC) is developed in close partnership with the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications of the University of Illinois. CaSToRC is designed to become a regional HPC centre for the Eastern Mediterranean. The regional role of CaSToRC is being developed within the FP7 Support Action LinkSCEEM-2, which CaSToRC is coordinating, the results of which the present project will be exploiting.

People

Prof. Jos Lelieveld This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Prof. Manfred Lange This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Christina Oikonomou This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED
The Cyprus Institute besides coordinating DARECLIMED will contribute particularly to WPs 3, 5 and 6 and in chairing WP3. In addition, collaboration between the CyI's key staff involved in DARECLIMED and colleagues at CaSToRC in the context of LinlSCEEM-2 will be a defining contribution to the project.

Jordan Ministry of Transport - Jordan Meteorological Department (Jordan)

The Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) was established in 1951 as part of the Civil Aviation Authority. Its involvement in international activities has grown steadily over the years since its adherence to the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1955. JMD In 1967 became an independent entity under the Ministry of Transport and Communication with a wide range of responsibilities, including the application of meteorology to various fields of human activity, particularly agriculture, water resources development, land transportation, shipping and aviation. At the regional level, JMD is an active member of the Arab league-Committee on Meteorology.

The Observing Network of the department consists of 36 synoptic and climatological stations, 100 rain guage, a GPS based radiosonde station, and 3 automatic stations. JMD has also a main National Forecasting Center and briefing offices located at Queen Alia International Airport and at military bases .Raw data and products GRID, GRIB, T4 are also received from Global and Regional centers. The National Forecasting Center (NFC) prepares predictions about general and specific weather phenomena for a given area based on observations of such weather related factors as atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, precipitation, cloud cover, temperature, humidity, frontal movements, etc. The NFC is connected to the new Network of Regional Association VI of WMO.

Recently JMD started a pilot project to link a number of weather stations to the NFC and the database center. NFC receives seasonal forecast from world centers (ECMWF and IRI) as well. MDD, PDUS, HRPT Meteorological Satellites Receiving Systems are installed at NFC, and a VSAT SADIS system is installed at Queen Alia International Air port. The products received from the two satellite systems are used for flight documentation purposes.

People

Dr. Mohammad Samawi This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dr. Ahmad Abu Obied This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED

JMD's main contribution will lie in identifying of and establishing contacts to major data holders in Jordan in the context of WP2. This will also comprise the organization and carrying out of a workshop that brings together national stakeholders in the fields of climate, energy and water in Jordan. JMD will also play a major role in WPs 4 and 7.

Go to the website of Jordan Meteorological Department: http://met.jometeo.gov.jo/jometeo/a_main

Academy of Athens (Greece)

Biomedical Research Foundation,  Atmosperic Environment Division

The Biomedical Research Foundation is a nonprofit Institute, established by the Academy of Athens, which traces its name to the third century BC Plato's Academy. The Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA) is the most recent addition to the Life Sciences Research establishments in Greece.

The Atmospheric Environment Division (AED) of the Centre of Environmental Health and Biophysics of BRFAA has been involved in pioneering research on ozone, chemistry-radiation interactions and global change. Measurements at AED are performed on a daily basis at the roof of BRFAA by a spectro-radiometer, two pyranometers and other radiometric instruments, and a meteorological station.

AED collaborates closely with the Department of the Northern Hemisphere Ozone Mapping Centre of the World Meteorological Organisation of the United Nations. AED has participated in a number of national and international activities. Since the beginning of its operation, scientists working at AED have participated in a number of competitive European research projects, such as CANDIDOZ, QUOBI, SCOUT-O3, QUANTIFY, GEMS, CIRCE, GEOmon, AMFIC and MACC. Scientists working at AED have published papers in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings and participated in the WMO/UNEP and IPCC assessments. AED is also collaborating with the Greek GEO Office (GGEOO). The main goal of GGEOO is to support the GEO activities at national level; presently GGEOO is trying to create a national data base to include all the environmental aspects according to the nine Societal Benefit Areas of GEOSS (climate, weather, water, biodiversity, health, energy, ecosystems and agriculture).

People

Prof. Christos Zerefos This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Kostas Eleftheratos This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED

The BRF-AA will coordinate WP4 and will play a major role in specifying the legal and formal conditions for data transfer between various national data holders and DARECLIMED. In addition BRF-AA will participate in WPs 3 and 5.

Go to the website of the Academy of Athens.

Tel-Aviv University (Israel)

Porter School of Environmental Studies

Located in Israel's cultural, financial, and business heartland, Tel-Aviv University is the largest comprehensive research university in Israel. Comprising 9 faculties, 24 Schools and 105 departments, the university has over a hundred research centers and institutes.

Tel Aviv University participates in the European Framework Programmes since the 5th Framework Programme. With participation in 50 projects in FP5 and 75 projects in FP6. Since the beginning of FP7 Tel Aviv University is part of 46 winning projects, several of them as the coordinator.

The Porter School of Environmental Studies (PSES) is the first and only multidisciplinary graduate school dedicated to the research, teaching and dissemination of environmental studies in Israel. The school promotes new areas of interdisciplinary environmental research, introduces novel environmental teaching programs, and places environmental issues on the academic and public agenda. PSES integrates research with policy and community projects to translate its academic work into practical applications. It works with all sectors, including government, business, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) both in Israel and abroad. Currently PSES has 120 M.Sc. students and 50 Ph.D. students from all faculties, including Law, Exact Sciences, Biology and Engineering.

People

Prof. Pinhas Alpert This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dr. Amnon Stupp This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED

WP2 will be coordinated by TAU, utilizing the extensive experience of the key staff of TAU involved in DARECLIMED. TAU will also contribute to WP4.

Go to the web site of Tel-Aviv University.

Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)

Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,500 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. The Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science was established in 1990, in response to the growing needs to address urgent environmental issues.

The research philosophy is to regard Earth as an integrated system, with research efforts aimed at understanding dynamic processes in the continents, in the oceans and in the atmosphere. A major focus of research in the department is atmospheric chemistry and physics where most of the effort is directed towards understanding aerosol chemistry and physics with special emphasis on the organic component.

Specifically, this research project is perfectly consistent with the work performed in the group of Professor Rudich at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research where laboratory investigations of processes of interest for atmospheric multiphase chemistry as well as development of new methods for studying aerosol optics are performed.

The Weizmann Institute is strongly supporting the commercial exploitation of scientific results in consistency with existing contracts. The scientific results arising from the present work will be presented at scientific meetings and published in the open literature.

People

Prof. Yinon Rudich This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED

The Weizmann Institute will contribute to WP4 and will lead WP7. This will also comprise the organization of workshops in Israel and support of other workshops in the framework of DARECLIMED as far as dissemination and outreach activities are concerned.

Go to the website of the Weizmann Institute.

University of Crete (Greece)

Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory

ECPL-UoC belongs to the Department of Chemistry of the University of Crete. Its activities concern teaching and research on various topics of Environmental Sciences. The faculty of the ECPL team has more than 20 years of expertise in environmental science research.

Among the activities of ECPL a particular focus is given to atmospheric chemistry, physical chemistry and climate change. The team has expertise both on experimental and chemical /climate modeling studies. Skills and competencies: Chemical composition of troposphere (aerosols and gases), global modeling, transboundary pollution, biogeochemical cycles, aerosol source regions, stratotropo exchange processes.

ECPL is very active in obtaining European and National competitive research grants as coordinator (SCIENCE and AVICENNA, DGXII and Environment and Climate Program, PHOENICS) and main contractor (MEDUSE, AEROBIC, SINDICATE, MATER, DOMAC, MARATHON, GLOBAL SOC and ANACAD, TMR, ADIOS, CREATE Environment and Climate Program, DGXII).

People

Prof. N. Mihalopoulos This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Prof. Maria Kanakidou This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED

The UoC will be responsible for WP6 and will have major responsibilities for organizing the International Conference to be organized by DARECLIMED. On account of the expertise of the key staff involved, UoC will also contribute to WP3.

Go to the website of the University of Crete.

Istanbul Technical University

The Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences

The Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences (EIES) is a graduate school of the Istanbul Technical University dedicated to interdisciplinary research and graduate education on all aspects of the Earth System. Established in 1996, EIES is organized in three departments - although departmental boundaries are not encouraged in any way - 1)Solid Earth Sciences, 2) Climate and Marine Sciences, 3) Ecology and Evolution.

EIES has currently 10 fulltime faculty members and a large number of adjunct faculty members from various ITU departments (especially, meteorology, geology, geophysics, geomatics, etc.). EIES enjoys a close collaboration with the Informatics Institute (a graduate school with programs in applied computer science and computational science and engineering). Also, it takes full advantage of being on the same campus with the (relatively recently established) National High Performance Computing Center of Turkey. There are many ongoing nationally and internationally funded research projects in areas ranging from neotectonics to regional climate modelling to ecosystem modelling.

People
Prof. H. Nüzhet Dalfes This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Associate Prof. Omer L. Sen This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Associate Prof. Tayfun Kindap This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Role in DARECLIMED
ITU will lead WP5 and will thus be instrumental in specifying and outlining the various aspects regarding the supporting infrastructure for a comprehensive data repository. The partner will also be involved in carrying out WPs 2 and 7.

Go to the website of the Istanbul Technical University.