Representatives from the 16 partner organisations of the EU Horizon 2020-funded APPLICATE project have just wrapped up their two-day kickoff meeting at Klimahaus (Climate House) in Bremerhaven, Germany. The goal of the consortium is to colalborate to improve climate and weather prediction for the Arctic and the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, as well as contribute to improved Arctic observations.
Following introductory remarks from Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Director Prof. Karin Lochte and AWI Climate Scientist and APPLICATE Project manager Prof. Thomas Jung, the leaders of each work package in the APPLICATE project gave brief introductions describing the work to be carried out.
"The KickOff Meeting is an important milestone of the APPLICATE project, as it provides the foundation for effective collaboration in the coming weeks and months - both within the consortium and with European and international partners," said an enthusiastic Prof. Jung.
After this, as the EU encourages the optimisation of resources and synergies between different projects that receive funding from them, the members of the APPLICATE consortium heard presentations from representatives of other projects funded under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme working on similar issues, namely INTAROS, Blue Action, PRIMAVERA, CRESCENDO, and EU-PolarNet. Many key areas of cooperation and coordination were discussed.
Known as APPLICATE (Advanced Prediction in Polar regions and beyond: modelling, observing system design and LInkages associated with a Changing Arctic climaTE), the €8 million project, financed by the EU HORIZON 2020 Research and Innovation programme, involves 16 partners from nine countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), including Arctic Portal, and will be carried out over a period of four years.
The overarching mission of APPLICATE is to develop enhanced predictive capacity for weather and climate in the Arctic and beyond, and to determine the influence of Arctic climate change on Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, for the benefit of policy makers, businesses and society. The project goals include constraining weather and climate models, determining the impact of Arctic climate change on mid latitudes through atmospheric and oceanic linkages and enhancing the capacity to predict Northern Hemisphere weather and climate.