Trafalgar Hit for the flagship of European meteorology, despite Brexit and contrary to what had been planned (¹), the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast will stay in England ! Even better, a new headquarter for ECMWF to be fully funded by the UK government through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Proof that the British have gone all out to keep this European scientific center in Reading (²).
Indeed, the University of Reading campus to welcome the largest group of meteorological and climate scientists in the world, following agreement to build a new state-of-the-art headquarters for ECMWF on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading. The project to relocate the ECMWF headquarters, currently located approximately 1,5 km away on Shinfield Road, Reading, in a new facility adjacent to the University's Meteorology Department on the Whiteknights campus, has just been approved at a meeting of the ECMWF's governing council.
The future ECMWF building
Together with the University's Department of Meteorology, and parts of the UK Met Office of National Center for Atmospheric Sciences, and National Centre for Earth Observation NERC for atmospheric sciences and Earth observation, currently located with the Department of Meteorology, ECMWF will create the largest cluster of weather and climate research and operational forecasting in the world.
British Minister for Science, George Freeman, said :
“We want the UK to lead in climate research and are proud to continue to host the ECMWF headquarters at the University of Reading. By investing in this crucial cluster, we are using UK science for global good to understand our climate and help us build back better from the pandemic. The UK and the ECMWF have worked hand in hand for well over four decades and we look forward to continuing our work with them at the highest levels of weather and climate science.. "
Dr Florence Rabier, CEO of ECMWF, increased :
"This is a very positive result for ECMWF, paving the way for a new headquarters building with sustainability at its core. We are grateful to the UK government and the University of Reading for their thoughtful and thorough proposal, and to all our Member States for their support in approving it. "
Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, declared in turn :
“ECMWF and the University have worked closely together on cutting-edge science for decades, and have become known as leading institutions in the fields of weather and climate. I am thrilled that, through agreement between the UK Government and ECMWF, we will be able to build on this success at a time when a greater scientific understanding of the Earth's changing weather and its impacts is more important than ever. "
The English therefore broke their piggy bank to keep the ECMWF at home, and one can only be surprised that the European institutions and the French government have abandoned the project of a relocation, however seriously considered (¹). Mysteries of politics and diplomacy !
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(¹) ReadECMWF weather data soon open to the public [1st part]
(²) Source : New home for ECMWF on University of Reading campus agreed
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