The Expert Panel on Nitrogen Budgets (EPNB) provides expert guidance to the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen in providing mass-consistent information of the fate of nitrogen in the environment. It was initiated at the first meeting of the Task Force in Wageningen, Netherlands, in June 2008 as an ad-hoc expert panel. Between 2008 and early 2026, 23 meetings of the EPNB have been organized, many of which coincided with regular task force meetings. EPNB-24, was organized as a virtual meeting October 15, 2026, just a few days after the recent TFRN meeting that was organized in The Hague, Netherlands. Minutes of that meeting are available as a pdf file at the end of this page, including action notes. Please feel free to contact EPNB co-chairs, markus.geupel(at)uba.de or wilfried.winiwarter(at)iiasa.ac.at in case of any questions, also regarding possibilities to contribute.
EPNB prepared the “Guidance Document on National Nitrogen Budgets”. The document was presented and approved at the 31st session of the Executive Body of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution in 2013. An update has been approved at the 45th session of the EB in December 2025 as EB decision 2025/4 (English version, French version, Russian version). Based on extensive user feedback from previous versions, also the Annexes to the Guidance Document have been revised so that the Guidance Document and its Annexes (the complete user guidance) are now fully consistent.
The Annexes, produced under contract for the German Environment Agency, are now available as a report. The complete and detailed guidance, available at the same web site, also contains a template for reporting NNBs (Excel template including some simple vizualization tools - please note the update to Version 1.1 during summer 2026) and a template to export data to display Nr flows using the STAN software (as a zip-file, for details please consult the Annexes to the GD; software is available for free provided by TU Vienna). These instructions are supported by a Summary for Policy Makers (available at the bottom of this page).
A voluntary Call-for-data has been sent to parties by the UNECE secretariat, requesting NNBs to be returned by July 2027, and EPNB currently is accompanying that work. A peer-2-peer group has been established, and a training session and further support will be organized. In order to support also the timeline for the Call-for-data, EPNB-25 will be organized in person, in February 2027, and include such support activities.
EPNB-25 has been scheduled from 1 p.m., February 22, 2027 to 1 p.m., February 24, 2027 for Zielona Góra, Poland. Detailed logistics and accessibility from nearby airports (Berlin, Wroclaw, Poznan or Warsaw) will be provided in the near future. Further information will also be shared via the EPNB e-mail list, please inform co-chairs in case you wish to receive these e-mails.