The NEESPI Regional Focus Research Center for Non-boreal Eastern Europe was founded at the Institute of Environmental and Earth Sciences, University of West Hungary, in Sopron, in cooperation with NASA, NOAA and RAS

International cooperative research has paid up to now little attention to the effect of climate change in SE-Europe. Most of this region is situated in a climatic and ecological transition zone (ecotone) between closed forests and steppe therefore relatively small changes can generate ecologically harmful processes. Following the initiative of prof. Csaba Mátyás, a regional coordination center (Regional Focus Research Center for Non-boreal Eastern Europe) has been established at the University of West Hungary, Institute of Environmental and Earth Sciences in Sopron, Hungary, as part of the NEESPI cooperation network. „Nonboreal” means that the field of activity lies outside of the boreal forest or taiga belt, in the border region toward the continental steppe. This zone starts nearly exactly at the location of the Focus Centre in Sopron, Hungary, and stretches eastward across the Ukraine and South Russia into South Siberia to Mandshuria.
 The goal of this cooperation is the detailed analysis of effects of terrestrial energy, water and biogeochemical cycles and human impacts (first of all land use change) on the regional and global climate and on the dynamics of ecosystems. The formal inauguration of the Center is planned on April 24, 2009, in Sopron.
The NEESPI (Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative) network was established on the initiative of NASA, NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in 2005. Since then, 560 researchers from 30 countries take part actually in the virtual organisation under NEESPI.
The goal of this organization is the joint research and analysis of effects of climate change on northern and temperate Eurasia. Three-quarters of the temperate land in the northern hemisphere is found in Eurasia therefore the processes taking place here will have remarkable influence on the Earth’s climate. One of the weakest points of climate modelling is the response and the impact of vegetation cover on atmospheric and hydrologic processes. The Center in Sopron plans – among other themes - to improve the knowledge about these interactions.
Currently existing NEESPI centers and their coordinators:
     Center for Cold Land Processes and Arctic Coastal Studies, Univ. of Alaska –
Fairbanks, AK, USA (Vladimir Romanovsky)
     Center for Water System Studies University of New Hampshire,
Durham, NM, USA (Charles Vorosmarty)
     Center for Aerosol Studies Georgia Inst. for Technology,
Atlanta, GA, USA (Irina Sokolik)
     Center for Land Use Studies Colorado State University, Fort
Collins, CO, USA (Dennis Ojiima: Heinz Sci. Center, Washington, DC)
     Center for Biogeochemical Cycle Studies, Max Planck Inst. for Biogeochemistry,
Jena, Germany (Martin Heimann)
     Center for Land Cover Studies , Friedrich-Schiller University,
Jena, Germany (Christianne Schmullius)
     Regional Focus Research Center for Non-boreal Eastern Europe
Sopron, Hungary (Csaba Mátyás)
     Beijing Regional Focus Research Center for Dry Land Processes Studies, Inst. of Geography and Natural Resources Res. of Chines Acad. of Sci.,
Beijing, China (Jiyuan Liu)
     Regional Focus Research Center for NEESPI Studies in Siberia
(Krasnoyarsk, Federal Siberian University (Evgeny Vaganov) and
Siberian Center for Environmental Research (SCERT), Tomsk (Evgeny
Gordov) 

United States:
     For hydrometeorological information: National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC
     For remote sensing information: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Russian Federation:
     For hydrometeorological information: Research Institute For Hydrometeorological Information, Obninsk, Kaluga Area
     For remote sensing information: SCANEX Corp., Moscow
China with focus on East Asia:
     Beijing Climate Center