Annalisa Iadanza

The C-Drill Core Repository, currently under development at the CNR - Territorial Research Area of Rome 1, is designed to address this gap by establishing a national reference facility for the conservation, management and scientific reuse of continental drilling cores. The repository will accommodate approximately 50–70 km of cores stored in controlled environments (+4 °C, room temperature, −20/−80 °C), supported by high-density mobile racking, automated climate control and continuous environmental monitoring. The facility will also host dedicated laboratories for core splitting and handling, high-resolution and multispectral imaging, XRF scanning, physical property logging (MSCL), wet and dry sample preparation, and microscopy. These capabilities will enable non-destructive characterisation and advanced analytical workflows directly linked to the archived materials.A fully integrated digital workflow will be implemented, including systematic core digitisation, LIMS-based traceability, a standardised sample request system and interoperability with international data repositories in compliance with FAIR principles (e.g. PANGAEA, EarthChem, mDIS).Conceived as a modular and scalable infrastructure, C-Drill will ensure high standards of climatic stability, data integrity, safety and user accessibility. The repository will provide services to national research institutes, universities and public agencies; support training activities for early-career scientists and technical staff; and generate interoperable datasets aligned with ICDP/IODP³, EPOS and other international frameworks.By overcoming the current fragmentation of continental core archives in Italy, C-Drill will harmonise procedures for core acquisition, documentation and access with the best practices of leading European and international repositories. At the same time, it will enhance research efficiency, foster multidisciplinary collaboration and strengthen Italy’s capacity to participate in major international scientific drilling initiatives.This contribution presents the design rationale, functional requirements, technological solutions and planned user services of the C-Drill Core Repository. The EGU platform will be used to engage potential partners, gather community feedback and refine the development roadmap towards full integration into the international scientific drilling network.

The Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System (ITINERIS) project is building the Italian Hub of Research Infrastructures (RI) and aims to facilitate the coordinated provision of wide, streamlined access to data and services from the national nodes of 22 RIs across the atmosphere, marine domain, terrestrial biosphere, and geosphere domains.A significant effort is being made to harmonize the access practices across the participating RIs to ensure that all users can experience uniform, simplified and efficient access to the wider and integrated set of advanced RIs’ services.An analysis of current access policies and practices confirmed that RIs in ITINERIS share many aspects, largely because they follow the EU Charter of Access to Research Infrastructures and are mostly funded by the EU. However, some noticeable differences were identified, for instance, in the cases of ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) and ECORD (European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling), where harmonization poses both an opportunity and a challenge.Access in ACTRIS is centrally managed by the Service and Access Management Unit (SAMU) of the Head Office and is provided following user request in response to a standard or rolling call. User requests undergo a selection process, which consists of 3 steps of review based on eligibility (by the SAMU), feasibility (by the provider), and scientific merit (by external experts). Special procedures streamline the process in particular cases, depending on the type of user (private sector users, public authorities, international networks) or the contingent situation (exceptional situations and extreme events requiring researchers to conduct essential experiments, measurements, or analyses).ECORD, a distributed RI in the geosphere domain, operates as an independent consortium of 15 members with a centralized management structure and as a member of the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP3). Its access model reflects this dual nature: drilling and legacy assets proposal submission is not subject to membership; access to expeditions is merit-based and weighted against the annual quota of the national member; access to training services is excellence-driven and subject to the membership fee; access to research grants and scholarships is an excellence-driven initiative for ECORD-based early-career scientists; upon request, access to samples/data after the expiration of the moratorium period is wide, unrelated to membership, and free of charge.Given this heterogeneous context, the development of a shared Access Management Plan, which provides for harmonized access practices and a national framework for access for the ITINERIS RIs, is based on enhancing common principles and elements in the processes. The plan is meant to integrate the persisting differences, which stem from the unique characteristics of the various infrastructures, access methods, and services provided, into a common and non-conflicting scheme. The harmonized process is articulated in: user application, eligibility and feasibility confirmation, and expert evaluation.Acknowledgement: the research has been funded by EU - Next Generation EU Mission 4, Component 2 - CUP B53C22002150006 - Project IR0000032 – ITINERIS - Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System

In the framework of the Research Infrastructures (RIs), scientific drilling represents a globally ranging, distributed RI that generates a wide variety of subsurface data. The ongoing project “Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System (ITINERIS)” aims at building the Italian Hub of RIs in the environmental scientific domain by coordinating a network of national nodes from 22 RIs, including the Italian participation in the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) and in the International Continental Scientific Drilling Project (ICDP). The main goal of ITINERIS is to promote cross-disciplinary research in environmental sciences through the use and re-use of existing (or pre-operational) data and services and new observations, and to address scientifically and societally relevant issues.The impact of ITINERIS on the Italian geoscientists involved in scientific drilling is twofold. First, it will improve the access to both the ECORD and the ICDP infrastructures. This will result in increasing the national participation in terms of proposal writing, drilling expeditions/projects, initiatives to use legacy samples/data, and training activities. Secondly, it will allow to collect and systematize the great amount of data produced by Italian scientists in the past scientific drilling programs (DSDP-ODP-IODP). This will facilitate the data handling and interoperability approach. A thematic digital archive of ECORD/ICDP-related data will be provided within the following thematic areas: micropaleontology, petrology, elemental and isotope geochemistry, paleomagnetism, stratigraphy/lithology, structural geology, borehole geophysics and site survey. This structured and accessible scientific dataset will represent a milestone for further implementation following FAIR data principles and best practices for ongoing and future drilling projects. Further developments of this digital archive might also serve as an additional tool to be integrated within the SPARCs initiative of IODP3.