We propose a four-year project aiming to first, understand solar eruptions and second, help build a future capacity to predict them, thus contributing to the forecasting of the ever-changing space weather conditions. Inclement space weather has adverse consequences on exposed humans and technological assets in space and near-space environments, and sometimes even on ground-based facilities. As solar eruptive activity is predominantly magnetic in origin, the targeted research objectives will be achieved via a comprehensive, innovative analysis of solar magnetogram data combined with complementary information from other solar data sets. The proposed research topic presents a milestone for modern solar physics, thus carrying significant intellectual weight, and at the same time it may lead to meaningful practical improvements toward the safety and smooth operation of our manned and unmanned space infrastructure.The proposal coordinator has spent the past nine years in the United States of America, most of them as a Senior Professional Staff Physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Maryland. As of September 2009 he possesses a tenure-track Assistant Research Professor (Researcher C') position at the Academy of Athens in Athens, Greece. He is also an elected Board Member of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD; 2008 - 2011). With virtually non-existent institutional funding for travel, publications, and student supervision/mentoring, he applies for Marie Curie IRG funding primarily for these three purposes rather than for salary support. The proposal demonstrates that a Marie Curie IRG Grant will substantially improve his employment conditions and help him solidify his career prospects in Europe at the same time keeping his strong ties with the US solar physics community and providing the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European solar physics community with needed expertise in the study of solar magnetism.