The Agreement on hosting of the International CLIVAR Project Office (ICPO) has been signed between the First Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, China (FIO, MNR) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) on July 11, 2019. According to the agreement, FIO will continue to host ICPO from July 2019 to June 2024 in Qingdao, China.

The ICPO has moved to Qingdao since 2014. In the past 5 years, CLIVAR has established closer cooperative relationship with FIO as well as other Chinese institutes which focus on ocean and climate research such as the Ocean University of China (OUC)，the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM), Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, China Academy of Sciences (SCSIO-CAS), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS), Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST), and etc. Based on the strengthened relationship, CLIVAR has obtained fruitful achievements in scientific research, knowledge transfer, international cooperation and capacity building. Within this platform, outstanding events were successfully organized, such as: CLIVAR-IOC workshop in 2015, CLIVAR Open Science Conference and the CLIVAR Early Career Scientist Symposium in 2016, and the CLIVAR-FIO summer school in 2018. Many Chinese scientists involved closely as members or co-chairs of CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG), panels and research foci. Moreover, through the endorsement by CLIVAR, scientific researches from China have been promoted to the international arena.

Qingdao is the harbor of China on climate and marine science and technology, China is in a position to act as a bridge between the Eastern and the Western world, and CLIVAR’s science is also entering to the new era with its new science plan approved. Taking these advantages, CLIVAR communities and the ICPO will explore in the future more connections between scientists around the world to facilitate observations, analysis, predictions and projections of variability and changes in the Earth’s climate system, enabling better understanding of climate variability and dynamics, predictability and change, to the benefit of society and the environment in which we live.