WCRP Secretariat and IPOs Telecon in March 2021

 

A WCRP Secretariat and International Project Offices (IPOs) telecon was organized on 3rd March 2021, with the participation of representatives from the IPOs of CliC, CLIVAR, GEWEX, SPARC, CORDEX, S2S, CORA and WCRP Secretariat. The major outcomes of the telecon are:

  • The working arrangement for the CMIP IPO is well under way;
  • An interim SSG has been set up for the new ‘model-data home’, to further develop and refine the Terms of References and substructure of the ‘home’, aiming to have a solid draft by JSC-42. A modeling workshop is planned in early fall 2021. 
  • WCRP Regional Consultation is now at the stage of organizing CLIVAR Research Forum (CRF) in different regions. The first CRF has been organized in Oceania on 10th February, with many feedbacks received by the co-chairs of Lighthouse Activities after the forum. The next CRF will be organized in Eastern Asia on 7 April 2021, and the CRFs in Caribbean, South Africa and Latin America are also under planning. A shared document will be created to synthesize the best practices and lessons learnt from the CRFs. Meanwhile, it is important to focus more on building up the climate research communities in each region, rather than only organizing specific events. It is also necessary to increase the connection to global initiatives at different domains (e.g. WMO Regional Climate Outlook Forum).
  • WCRP Open Science Conference is planned to be organized in Spring 2023, with focus of outcomes of the WCRP Grand Challenges.
  • The idea of multi-hub meeting was mentioned by SPARC for organizing the upcoming SPARC General Assembly, with three larger hubs where around 100-150 people can gather. The timing will be that any time two of the hubs are online, so at least one hub can listen to the live talks at the other hub, and the third hub will be able to look at the recordings later. CORDEX used to have hub meeting in Asia as well as regional forums.
  • Again, IPOs would like improve the internal communications between IPOs and WCRP Secretariat, and to be involved in the early stage of WCRP decisions.
  • The next WCRP Secretariat and IPOs meeting will be hosted by S2S ICO.

The key messages brought from ICPO were:

  • The WCRP/CLIVAR Workshop on Climate Interactions among the Tropical Basins was successfully organized in 24-26 February 2021, with over 200 participants from more than 30 countries. This was the first online big event organized by ICPO, with the support from US CLIVAR Project Office. ICPO has gained valuable experience by organizing this event via using different platforms for plenary session (Webex), poster session (https://virtualpostersession.org/) and the slack channel which allows increased opportunities for engagement, ongoing conversation, and collaboration outside of the meeting dates.
  • 26th Session of CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group will be organized from 8 to 11 March 2021, and representatives from CliC and CORDEX are to be identified.