Brussels – Promoting sustainability and climate resilience. This is the intent of the new memorandum of understanding signed today in Brussels between the Joint Research Centre of the European Union (JRC) and Ispra, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research. Under the document, which is valid until 2029 and builds on years of cooperation, JRC and Ispra will deepen scientific collaboration on the main environmental and sustainability challenges and expand joint work in areas such as air quality, chemical safety, and the EU eco-label.
In Brussels, a memorandum of understanding was signed between ISPRA and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre #JRC @EU_ScienceHub.
The three priority themes of the collaboration will be:
IA
Soil and Water/Ocean
Blue Economy
https://t.co/bgZKpO3C8v pic.twitter.com/eo0oDook9E– ISPRA – Ist. Sup. Protezione e Ricerca Ambientale (@ISPRA_Press) September 30, 2025
In other words, they will intensify cooperation on forests, water, soil and marine ecosystems, as well as on cross-cutting topics such as climate resilience, disaster preparedness, and the circular economy. Projects include the fight against desertification through the EU Soil Observatory, support for the Strategy for Water Resilience and the Pact for the Oceans, and the advancement of marine research with Ispra’s new oceanographic ship Arcadia, which, designed to study, monitor, and protect the Mediterranean’s marine ecosystems, is in fact a state-of-the-art floating laboratory.
Italy at the centre of research
During the signing ceremony, the Director General of the JRC, Bernard Magenhann, emphasised the protocol’s contribution to the European Green Deal and the strategic importance of Italy as an EU research hub. While the director of the JRC, Alessandra Zampieri, highlighted the immediate impact of the agreement through ongoing projects—such as the Mediterranean Soil Atlas and the European Water Academy—and the president of Ispra, Stefano Laporta, emphasised the importance of strengthening Italy’s role in the EU’s scientific-political ecosystem.
For these reasons, the collaboration could eventually extend to areas such as critical raw materials and Earth observation, while involving Italian partners such as the National Research Centre (CNR) and the Milan Innovation District.
Research Collaborations
Ispra recalled that with the Jrc there is already a scientific collaboration in several areas, such as chemical accidents, the EU Ecolabel, the maintenance and implementation of Inspire – INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe, the European Directive that ensures that the spatial data infrastructures of all Member States are compatible and usable in a pan-European context, facilitating the search for spatial data via the web.
Specifically, the JRC conducts research in the fields of sustainability, resource scarcity, and climate change; studies early warning systems for tsunamis; manages the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System; and investigates security, climate adaptation, and building and transport infrastructure.
Ispra, on the other hand, conducts research, cognitive monitoring, and evaluation in the environmental field, focusing on the protection of water, the atmosphere, soil, subsoil, marine and terrestrial biodiversity, and related crops, as well as the protection of nature and fauna.
A new understanding
It is in this context of competences that the Memorandum signed today finds its place and which aims to “define the overall framework of this collaboration in terms of the general framework, technical areas and procedures for the stipulation of formal agreements, detailing the specifics of the collaboration and identifying a list of environmental issues for which a number of general themes and specific related topics have been identified,” Ispra details in a press note. “As a first start, a priority focus was placed on three themes: Artificial Intelligence, Soil and Water/Ocean and Blue economy,” and for each of these, “expert groups were appointed and first interactions started.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
