International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) is an international forum for aerosol forecast centres, remote sensing data providers, and lead systems developers to share best practices and discuss pressing issues facing the operational aerosol community. While the dynamical meteorology community has well-developed protocols and near real-time observing systems to support forecasting, the aerosol community is only beginning to organize. Infrastructure and data protocols need to be developed between operational centres in order to fully support this emerging field.