AERIS aims to build an international, cross-sectoral network to advance atmospheric sciences by improving vertically-resolved atmospheric characterization techniques, including near-surface regions. The project unites European academic and commercial institutions with North and South American partners (LALINET). AERIS enhances measurement techniques, connects international observation programs, and creates opportunities for early warning systems, business innovation, and job creation. The main objective is to advance retrieval capabilities for biogenic and non-biogenic aerosols over South America, enabling data with applications in health, hydrology, air quality, and climate. This will support a regional early warning system with global implications, benefiting aviation, biodiversity, and space mission validation. Specific goals include: (1) Implementing quality assurance and calibration for vertically resolved and near-surface measurements; (2) Optimizing inversion algorithms for aerosol property retrievals; (3) Enhancing synergies between instruments to improve spatial and temporal data; (4) Developing predictive models linking aerosols to health impacts; and (5) Investigating aerosol-induced cloud nucleation and its effects on the hydrological cycle. South America faces critical atmospheric challenges with global consequences. Limited infrastructure and monitoring networks hinder accurate data collection and climate modeling, weakening public policies and international cooperation. AERIS addresses these challenges by integrating high-quality, vertically resolved atmospheric data with near-surface imagery, advancing aerosol characterization in South America. This unique database will strengthen regional and global atmospheric science. To achieve these goals, AERIS includes an ambitious consortium and proposes secondments, workshops, and training activities to foster a shared culture of research and innovation.

The GRASP-SYNERGY proposal is to make an international and inter-sectorial network of organizations working together including scientists and engineers of different background and expertise. The focus is on atmospheric sciences, particularly in addressing the challenges about developing standard techniques that permit atmospheric and surface characterization from different techniques and measurements. The main objective is further develop of the Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP) algorithm for joint inversions of different remote sensing instrumentation that permit advanced synergistic retrievals of atmosphere and surface properties. To fulfil this breakthrough objective GRASP-SYNERGY will address (i) Advanced aerosol parameterizations (modelling) from new developments in multiwavelength polarized polar nephelometry, (ii)New deployments and optimizations in GRASP forward and inversion approaches for advanced retrievals (iii)Synergies of different space instruments to improve spectral, spatial and temporal coverage as well as information content from multi-angular polarimetry and (iv)Synergies of ground-based and space measurements for advanced retrievals and for satellite validations. These objectives try to address challenge that the measurements from single space-borne instrument is always be limited in one or another way. This seriously limits the possibility of advanced atmospheric and surface characterizations from space measurements. In this regard, the synergy of different instrument allows essentially improve information content of measurements and bring the retrieval of atmosphere and surface properties to qualitatively new level. To face all these challenges GRASP-SYNERGY consists of an ambitious consortium, and to favor all these interactions we propose a set of secondments, workshops and training activities that will also foster a shared culture of research and innovation.