Partners and Collaborations

CESOC is strongly connected with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), an inter-governmental organisation at the forefront of medium-range weather forecasting. Established in 1975, ECMWF brings together experts from across Europe to improve weather prediction quality for societal benefit. It is led by General Director Florian Pappenberger (with Director General Elect & Deputy Director-General Steven English) and has headquarters in Reading, UK, with sites in Bonn, Germany, and supercomputer facilities in Bologna, Italy. CESOC’s partnership with ECMWF began with its founding in October 2020, supporting Bonn’s successful bid to host ECMWF’s new premises. The Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV), to which the German Weather Service (DWD) belongs, was responsible for Germany’s bid and for implementing the respective agreements. From the start, CESOC has worked closely with BMV, DWD, and ECMWF to support the so-called BRIDGE project, which brings ECMWF staff to Bonn and builds connections to surrounding research institutions.

With the new branch in Bonn and the ECMWF computing centre in Bologna, the two countries Italy and Germany, established a new bilateral cooperation in meteorology, climatology, and related disciplines that aims at creating a hub of excellence for cutting-edge research and translating the findings into improving operational services and university education: IDEA-S4S (hyperlink to sub-page).

A Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2022 underlines the close partnership, covering joint projects, education and training, personnel exchange, and joint publications. CESOC and ECMWF also jointly developed four STEP UP! Fellowship positions to strengthen early-career research and bridge the gap between research and operations.

To welcome ECMWF staff, CESOC organised location visits across its three sites (FZJ in June 2022, UB in September 2022, and UoC in November 2023), each bringing together dozens of researchers and ECMWF staff to identify common research interests and opportunities for collaboration. ECMWF staff have also contributed to CESOC colloquia and Members’ Assemblies.

Regular meetings between CESOC and ECMWF leadership have led to the creation of joint working groups, e.g. in Machine Learning for Earth System Modelling (MLESM, hyperlink to workshop and hackathon auf CESOC page) and Reanalysis (hyperlink to working group auf CESOC page). CESOC researchers are also involved in the planning and execution of ECMWF‘s Code for Earth, where they supervise challenges together with external developers.