ECMWF Representatives in our Member and Co-operating States play a vital role in disseminating information, providing feedback to ECMWF, and managing users and the use of ECMWF products and services. In 2023, five meetings were held between ECMWF and Member and Co‑operating State Representatives. In May, Catalogue Contact Points met, and the Security Representatives Meeting was held, both virtually. In October, the Computing Representatives met in person in Bologna as a side meeting to the high-performance computing (HPC) workshop. In November, a Co‑operating Statesʼ User Forum was held for the first time, followed by the Meteorological User Forum for Meteorological Representatives; both were online. We now aim for all meetings to be held annually.
Representatives' meetings are an opportunity for ECMWF to present updates and discuss a variety of topics, and to get to know user issues in Member and Co‑operating States. The meetings also invite attendees to share and discuss experiences from their own countries and provide an opportunity to network with fellow representatives. These meetings are one of many ways ECMWF engages with Member and Co-operating States, and we would like to thank the Representatives for the important role they play.
More information on each meeting can be found below.
Catalogue Contact Points (CCP) Meeting
The 2023 CCP Meeting was attended by 11 Member and Co‑operating States. The meeting focused on Cycle 48r1 of ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), a new service charge model, and updates to licensing policies. Attendees provided useful and informative updates on data policies, licensing and provision in their organisations and countries. At the time of the meeting, Cycle 48r1 was near to implementation, so ECMWF colleagues stressed the importance of user testing of the new data configurations. Valuable discussions were had on applications and licensing.
Security Representatives’ (SecRep) Meeting
The SecRep Meeting welcomed around 15 Member and Co‑operating States and the European Space Agency (ESA) to review the status of security arrangements at ECMWF and within Member and Co‑operating States and to discuss planned information security development. The topics discussed included the Zero Trust Security approach, which relates to the increase in remote working, and various matters linked to cybersecurity. Attendees appreciated the discussions and information shared.
Computing Representatives’ Event
Twenty-three Computing Representatives attended the Computing Representatives' Event 2023 held in person in Bologna, with an additional eight participating online. The event was held exceptionally in person as a side meeting to the HPC workshop. It provided an opportunity to showcase the Atos HPC to those who work alongside users.
Presentations were given by ECMWF staff covering computing services updates, future IFS model cycles, GRIB2 migration, data licensing and the Computing Representativesʼ role. Member and Co‑operating States presented informative updates on work in their respective countries. This included Alex Deckmyn from Belgium, describing how the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI) now runs operationally in Bologna; Hans de Vries from the Netherlands, explaining how they are moving toward cloud computing; and Thomas Lorenzen from Denmark, providing an update on the United Weather Centre West (UWCW) supercomputer collaboration. In the afternoon, a session was held jointly with EUMETSAT on the European Weather Cloud (EWC), providing updates on the now-operational EWC and the role of Computing Representatives in this. The event afforded an excellent opportunity to discuss and learn about common challenges faced by many institutes, as well as to celebrate the longstanding connections that have formed as a result of this group.
Co‑operating Statesʼ User Forum
A Co‑operating States User Forum was held for the first time in November 2023. The forum is the result of a request from the Advisory Committee of Co‑operating States (ACCS) and provides a place for Co‑operating States to discuss issues that are of direct relevance to them. More than 20 attendees from nine Co‑operating States joined the meeting. Discussions included forecast products, product access and ECMWF membership. Davit Loladze from Georgia and Ilia Gospodinov from Bulgaria gave presentations on their use of ECMWF products. All attendees indicated that the forum was either somewhat useful or very useful, and all wanted future meetings. The Co‑operating Statesʼ User Forum will become an annual meeting.
Meteorological User Forum
The Meteorological User Forum is an annual meeting for ECMWF Meteorological Representatives from all Member and Co‑operating States. Twenty-one attendees joined the meeting, where a variety of topics were presented and discussed. These included new forecast products; ecCharts and OpenCharts; machine learning; IFS Cycle 48r1; IFS Cycle 49r1; the planned ERA6 reanalysis; the Using ECMWF Forecasts (UEF) event; and Member and Co‑operating State engagement and visits. Thomas Schumann from the German Meteorological Service (DWD) and Meda Andrei from the Romanian National Meteorological Administration (ANM) both provided insightful presentations, including issues with ECMWF forecasts, which will be investigated in more detail. Feedback on the meeting was positive, with one attendee commenting: “Thank you very much for all the great presentations and discussions!” All participants welcomed the range of updates and topics covered.
