Objective Biomass burning (BB) is a significant contributor to global atmospheric particulate matter, with strong impacts on climate, ecosystems and public health. Yet these impacts are highly uncertain, largely owing to our inability to track BB particulate matter and the evolution of their properties throughout most of its atmospheric lifetime. PyroTRACH will provide the necessary breakthroughs in our understanding of BB particles and their impacts by: i) deriving new markers of biomass burning with an atmospheric lifetime that exceeds the current limitation of about a day, ii) measuring highly uncertain but critically-important climate- and health- relevant properties of aerosols both from wildfire events that occur during summertime and from BB for heating purposes during wintertime in highly populated urban environments, iii) applying this new knowledge to quantify the contribution of biomass burning to aerosol in the Mediterranean region, and quantify its impacts on climate and public health. Novel state-of-the-art instrumentation, portable environmental chambers and well established measurement techniques will be applied in continuous measurements as well as intensive field campaigns to study the properties and evolution of BB particulates as they age in the atmosphere. Discovering new stable chemical markers that allow detection of BBOA many days after emission, while carefully and accurately following the climate and health-related properties of freshly emitted and aged BBOA, allows for an unprecedented understanding of the evolution and impacts of biomass burning aerosol and its impact on the Earth System and public health. Considering the increasing occurrence of wildfires, along with decreased emissions from fossil fuels means that accurately predicting the health and climate effects from biomass burning aerosol is one of the most important aspects of atmospheric aerosol that needs to be studied. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthnatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsengineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsagricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass Keywords Biomass Burning Aerosol Reactive Oxygen Species Atmospheric Measurements Modeling Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2016-COG - ERC Consolidator Grant Call for proposal ERC-2016-COG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant Host institution IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS Net EU contribution € 1 749 832,00 Address N PLASTIRA STR 100 70013 Irakleio Greece See on map Region Νησιά Αιγαίου Κρήτη Ηράκλειο Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 749 832,00 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS Greece Net EU contribution € 1 749 832,00 Address N PLASTIRA STR 100 70013 Irakleio See on map Region Νησιά Αιγαίου Κρήτη Ηράκλειο Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 749 832,00 ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE Switzerland Net EU contribution € 250 000,00 Address BATIMENT CE 3316 STATION 1 1015 Lausanne See on map Region Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Région lémanique Vaud Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 250 000,00