WeBaSOOP aims to bring the coordinating institution and Serbian collaborating partners to the level necessary to be a scientifically excellent scientific centre that can contribute to ACTRIS and RI-URBANS, and be associated with these infrastructures. The international partners will gain new insights on PM and expand their academic and stakeholder networks.
The proposal addresses also networking gaps and deficiencies between the research institutions in Serbia and internationally leading counterparts at EU and global level. Our overall goal is to develop the three closely collaborating institutions from Serbia, to become nationally and internationally recognized research groups able to support the development of new monitoring and assessment systems for atmospheric aerosols, with relevance to risk management and air quality management. We will leverage the longstanding research collaboration between partners to further research on particulate matter, develop observational capacities, generate new data in a geographic area where there are significant research gaps, and contribute to understanding sources of PM by performing source apportionment using novel types of inputs (OP, online and offline PM characterization).
WeBaSOOP primary objectives are:
• Enhancing the R&I capacity of the participating institutions through short term missions, workshops and training, and stakeholder contacts.
• Raising staff research profile by joint publishing, organizing and participation in international conferences.
• Raising the institutions’ research profile, by demonstrating new skills and entering new collaboration constellations, including joint development of collaborative research proposals.
• Development and implementation of new, interdisciplinary research tools for air quality assessment.
• Providing data to ACTRIS.
• Becoming a viable candidate for a National Facility within ACTRIS.
WeBaSOOP secondary objectives are:
• Strengthen existing and build new research capabilities in atmospheric monitoring and assessment in the participating institutions, particularly from the widening county (WP1, WP2).
• Plan and perform air pollution measuring campaigns in Serbia. Measurements will use both real times, on-line and off-line techniques of PM characterization, and the data will be assessed using additional advanced assessment techniques (WP2 supported by WP1 and WP3).
• Disseminate the results to relevant stakeholders (WP3).
• Increase the scientific and management expertise of project partners regarding levels, physical-chemical properties and toxic potential of ambient PM relevant for Western Balkan urban and urban-industrial area (WP1, WP2, WP4, WP5).