The Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C) of The Cyprus Institute is proud to announce its coordination of the new Horizon Europe Project entitled ‘Doctoral Network on Atmospheric Dust’ (Dust-DN), which secured funding of 3.5 million under the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks program. Awarded with full marks within a very competitive evaluation and selection, this initiative aims to train the next generation of scientists in the field of atmospheric dust.

Atmospheric dust is one of the most visible and detectable aspects of the transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, affecting visibility, radiation, and climate. Despite its obvious presence in the atmosphere, the fundamental properties of atmospheric dust remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to develop accurate models and harness the societal benefits of better predictions. The Dust-DN project aims to bridge this knowledge gap by creating the first doctoral network dedicated to atmospheric mineral dust on a European scale, combining expertise and multidisciplinary approaches.

It is a strategic, international, and intersectoral alliance of high-profile partners that will drive innovation in understanding the fundamental properties of dust and in predicting its socio-economic impacts. By training a cohort of early-career scientists within a network of academic and non-academic partners, Dust-DN will address critical gaps in the field through the following research objectives:

1. Advancing the understanding of the fundamentals of dust microphysical properties and processes.
2. Identifying the influence of source regions on atmospheric dust properties.
3. Assessing the socio-economic impacts of dust on health, aviation, and energy production.
4. Investigating dust within the global climate system.

Project Partners and Participants

The Dust-DN project brings together 8 core partners and 15 associated partners, including 5 non-academic institutions, ensuring a broad range of expertise and facilities to address the complex challenges posed by atmospheric dust. The core participating institutes are The Cyprus Institute (CyI) – Project Coordinator, the University of Évora (UÉ) from Portugal, the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) from Greece, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) from Spain, the Technical University of Darmstadt (TUDa) from Germany, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) also from Germany, the University of Reading (UREAD) from United Kingdom, and the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos – World Radiation Center (PMOD-WRC) from Switzerland.

The associated partners include five universities: the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) andthe Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) both from Greece, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) from Spain, the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) from Switzerland and the Khalifa University from United Arab Emirates; five research institutions, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) from Germany, the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence from Cyprus, the Center of Allergy and Environment (ZAUM) from Germany, the Centro Académico Clínico do Alentejo (C-TRAIL) from Portugal,the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas – Plataforma Solar de Almería (CIEMAT-PSA) from Spain, one agency of the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a national meteorological service the Met Office (MetO) from the United Kingdom, and three private companies, the Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (RR) a British multinational aerospace and defence company, the Earnst and Young (EY) Cyprus part of the global EY brand and the Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties (GRASP) from France.

This diverse partnership ensures a wide range of expertise, facilities, and geographic coverage, critical for addressing the complex challenges posed by atmospheric dust.

The Dust-DN project kickoff meeting will take place on 20 January 2025, marking the launch of this ambitious initiative. Participants will present the project’s objectives, methodologies, and timeline. To foster public engagement, the public part of the kickoff meeting will be in the form of pre-recorded videos presenting the project and its partners. It will be made available on the official YouTube channel of Dust-DN :

For more details about the Dust-DN project and to follow its progress, visit the project website at https://dust-dn.cyi.ac.cy/.

For any queries or interview requests, please contact:

• Prof. Franco Marenco (English inquiries): f.marenco (at) cyi.ac.cy
• Dr. Kostas Fragkos (Greek inquiries): k.fragkos (at) cyi.ac.cy

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101168425, as well as two national agencies: UKRI in the United Kingdom and SERI in Switzerland.

The Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), led by CARE-C of the Cyprus Institute, is recruiting PhD students for 17 ambitious research projects in the theme of atmospheric dust and the deadline has been extended until 30 September 2024.

PhD LOCATIONS: Cyprus, United Kingdom, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Germany, Switzerland.

Dust is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. It affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. The Dust Doctoral Network will train a cohort of scientists to become leaders in this field of research.

If you would like to learn more about DUST-DN, you can join the *webinar* dedicated to the network, organised by the Barcelona Dust Regional Centre on Wednesday 18 September at 15:00 CEST. The webinar information can be found here: https://dust.aemet.es/news-events/events/europe-webinar-for-the-dust-doctoral-network

If you are interested in applying for the available PhD positions, please visit the project webpage ( https://dust-dn.cyi.ac.cy/ ). The selected candidates will be appointed under a 36-months full-time employment contract and will be enrolled in a PhD programme at one or more project partner institutions, under the MSCA scheme ( https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/doctoral-networks ).

Today 21 August 2024 the Dust-DN coordinator Franco Marenco will give a webinar on Dust-DN. The presentation will overview Dust-DN, which has been designed to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods. The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust. Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts. The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors.

For more details: https://dust03.bsc.es/news-events/events

The Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN) has been selected with full marks to contribute to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) of Horizon Europe, and will officially start operations on 1 November 2024. A recruitment campaign for seventeen doctoral candidates within our prestigious network has now started, with a deadline at the end of August 2024. The Dust-DN website explains the network’s objectives and displays the job adverts: https://dust-dn.cyi.ac.cy/

Dust is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate. It affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified. Dust-DN will train a cohort of scientists to become leaders in this field of research.

Dust-DN in a nutshell:

• The first doctoral network on a European scale (to our knowledge), bringing together expertise on mineral dust in the atmosphere, combining multidisciplinary aspects.
• A strategic international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral alliance of high-profile beneficiaries and associated partners, able to leverage on unique state-of-the-art facilities
• A careful blend between individual research projects and integrated combined training and networking, and a critical mass on dust-focused studies using complementary methodologies.
• Exposure of the doctoral candidates to differing research and working environments, multiple technologies and methodologies.
• Training in the atmospheric sciences, dust science questions, transferable skills and on the partners’ unique research infrastructures, enabling to tackle the bigger picture of dust challenges.
• Dedicated applied research projects with direct contributions and impacts embedded with the societal and industrial sector.