On the 30^th March 2018, The Cyprus Institute (www.cyi.ac.cy) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Labour Inspection (www.mlsi.gov.cy/dli) to reinforce their existing cooperation aimed at improving air quality measurements and modelling.

Prof. Costas Papanicolas, President of the Cyprus Institute, and Mr. Anastassios Yiannaki, Director of the Department of Labour Inspection, signed the agreement at the premises of the DLI. 

The agreement will strengthen the already excellent cooperation in research activities related to Air Quality. This will involve joint experimental research, exchange of data, conferences, and sharing of instruments and facilities. For the next five years, the Cyprus Institute will support DLI with the chemical analysis of filters collected by the national air quality monitoring network, and the operation of two of the DLI atmospheric monitoring stations. This cooperation will cover air pollutants which are of public health concern in Cyprus, such as atmospheric particles (e.g. dust) and Ozone.

The recent dust episodes that occurred in the last few days in Cyprus are a constant reminder that we need to improve our prediction and monitoring of air quality, and this agreement will be instrumental to reinforce such capabilities.