Following a highly competitive second stage evaluation process, the Cyprus Institute’s “EMME-CARE” project was selected for funding under the TEAMING program of the EU’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation. The project budget is € 15 million plus an additional € 15 million in matching contribution from the Cyprus Government for a total budget of € 30 million.

EMME-CARE is led by the Cyprus Institute (CyI) and is coordinated by Prof. Jean Sciare (Director of the Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre (EEWRC) of CyI), in partnership with leading institutions in the field of atmospheric sciences and climate change.  The partnering teams are led by world renowned scientists: Prof. Jos Lelieveld from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, Prof. Markku Kulmala, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and Prof. Philippe Ciais, from the Laboratory for Climate Sciences and Environment of the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission in France.

EMME-CARE will result in the creation of a new Centre of Excellence at CyI that will pursue research, educational and innovation actions in the fields of atmospheric sciences, air pollution and climate change. The Mediterranean and the Middle East constitute an air pollution a major climate change hot spot. As a result, Cyprus is ideally situated to monitor and study these issues, as an island in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East and at the crossroads of long-range transported atmospheric pollution from three continents.

Furthermore, geostrategically and fully in line with the national Smart Specialization Strategy, Cyprus is ideally placed for establishing a Centre of Excellence to address air pollution and Climate Change impacts due to its geopolitical location as a European Union Member State with a business-friendly environment, and as a country with long-standing tradition of good relations and exchanges with the countries of the Middle East.

The Centre will be highly interdisciplinary and will operate within a collaborative framework with the scientific community, industry and Government. It will integrate and capitalize the existing activities and research infrastructure in Climate and Atmospheric Environmental research at The Cyprus Institute towards establishing a world-class Center of Excellence.

The President of The Cyprus Institute, Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas commented that “this is yet another clear confirmation that The Cyprus Institute has emerged as a European Center of Excellence in Research, Education and Innovation in the EMME region”.  He added that the topic of the new Center is perfectly aligned with the visionary Regional Climate Initiative announced by President Anastasiades in which The Cyprus Institute will be actively engaged.