The WCRP Secretariat and IPOs telecon was organised on 14 July 2021, with the participation of representatives from WCRP Secretariat, CORA, and International Project Offices of CLIVAR, GEWEX, S2S, Monsoon and YESS.

The major uptakes from the telecon are:

• Welcome Dr Hindumathi Palanisamy, new Scientific Officer at WCRP Secretariat on board;
• JSC-42 was successfully organised from 28 June to 2 July, with the approval of plans for WCRP Lighthouse Activities and two new ‘core projects’ (ESMO and RifS) and progress report from the Core Projects, Grand Challenges and other major activities and how they are strengthening their work in response to WCRP's Strategic Plan 2019-2028. Outcomes of WCRP JSC-42 are being finalised and will be shared to participants shortly. A JSC-only meeting will be organised in Nov.;
• WCRP Climate Research Forums (CRF) are on schedule, with the next forum being prepared for South America and other upcoming ones in South Asia and New Zealand later on. It was agreed that more emphasis should be made on the sustainability of the CRFs and the relationship management in each region, and some certain degree of support is needed. Data protection policy should be respected when disseminating information to the CRF participants;
• Several Expressions of Interest have been received for hosing the 2023 WCRP Open Science Conference. Full proposals will be invited from outstanding candidates and be submitted by the end of September;
• WCRP carbon footprint working group will have a meeting in Sept. or Oct. to discuss how to implement the carbon calculator and create draft guidelines;
• Budget will be streamlined across WCRP in the future. Basic budget will be allocated and some flexibility will be given to each project. A budget outlook for the following year is also expected. Concerns were risen by IPOs on the certainty of multi-year funding secured from WMO and the need of clear guidelines on how to use the fund;
• Additional help from IPOs is expected for managing and supporting to WCRP new structures, e.g. WCRP Lighthouse Activities (LHA). Given the cross-cutting nature of the LHAs, they will not go to the same directions as the current arrangement for WCRP Grand Challenges, i.e. to be fully taken care by a certain IPO. However, some other modality of support might be explored, e.g. secondment to WCRP Secretariat; or similar arrangement as CliC Fellow, etc.;
• The next WCRP Secretariat and IPOs telecon will be organised in Oct.