About the Ean Database

History

The initial idea for an European Aeroallergen Network was brought up in the late 1980's by Dr. Siegfried Jäger †. Colleagues from the University of Vienna, E. Halpern † and F. Hurka † did the programming for a handshake and helped with their efforts to achieve this significant goal.

The first agreement on cooperation concerning pollen data and pooling it in one database was met in 1987 by the foundation members Siegfried Jäger (Austria), Paolo Mandrioli (Italy), Siwert Nilsson (Sweden), Marie-Roger Ickovich (France), Ritva Kupias (Finland), Peer Günther von Wahl (Germany), Nicole Nolard (Belgium) and Frits Spieksma (Netherlands). The European Aeroallergen Network (EAN) as we know it today, was then established in 1988 on the initiative of Dr. Siegfried Jäger, who took care of the database from then on up till now. Owing to his efforts and diplomatic skill the database grew with the voluntary support and unpaid work of numerous colleagues to bring pollen data from Europe together for scientific purposes. Pollen data was hence centralized since the beginnings in Vienna. The network was hosted by the University of Vienna and by the Research group Aerobiology and Pollen information at the Medical University Vienna and is now hosted by the Austrian Polleninformation (www.polleninformation.at). This cooperation was and is a voluntary cooperation between analysts and aerobiologists of different backgrounds. The database itself is the largest, non-commercial pollen data collection in the world.


Status quo

EAN currently includes information from more than 400 active and 300 historical pollen-monitoring stations over whole Europe including 39 countries, not all of them located on the European continent.


Current team

Uwe Berger MBA
Lukas Dirr Msc
Dr. Markus Berger
DI Christoph Jäger
Mag. Maximilian Bastl


Membership

Pollen data contributors are automatically and exclusively EAN members. Contribution is a prerequisite for EAN membership. At present about 150 users are registered in the database. Users are employees of governmental organizations, universities, charities or private persons. Members of EAN have the opportunity to access data from other pollen monitoring sites and to follow the development of pollen seasons in remote areas. This access is essential for academic research, calibration of models and development of pollen forecasts. Moreover, EAN offers the possibility of a free backup of datasets. The Data-Use Policy and the trust in co-members and the administration is the fundament for every EAN member while handling data.


Future

EAN's pollen database is the basic tool for pollen forecasts and essential for pollen information services in Europe (www.polleninfo.org). Refined service features of the last years like European pollen load maps, the Patient's Hayfever Diary (www.pollendiary.com) and the personalized pollen information would have been impossible without the data from EAN contributors. Moreover, data is elementary for international research projects and clinical studies and thus of high value for allergological, climatic, ecological and meteorological studies.


Software Development

The software was developed and is maintained by Christoph Jäger.

The system uses various open source projects, like Tapestry, Spring, PostgreSQL, Apache POI, JFreeChart and Apache Tomcat.


Project Management

Project management is done by AZ Pollen Research GmbH (www.pollenresearch.com).


Responsible for the content

Austrian Polleninformation
(Österreichische Polleninformation)
Tuchlauben 7a
1010 Vienna
Austria

In case of questions contact infohub@polleninformation.at