Understanding and Predicting Impacts of Climate Extremes under Global Change

CLIMES advances the understanding of multisectoral impacts of climate extremes in an era of global change, and trains a cohort of climate impacts experts to enhance European resilience to future climate impacts and further Europe's capacity for research and innovation in this field. CLIMES specifically focuses on improved climate impact data compilation, innovative risk assessment and the development of climate impact forecasting. The research and training in CLIMES respond to urgent socio-economic needs. The cost of climate-related disasters is steadily increasing, as many climate extremes become more frequent and severe due to anthropogenic climate change. The European Commission recognises changes in climate extremes and their impacts as transnational problems and key challenges facing the Union. These challenges are also an opportunity: there is huge untapped potential for climate services in Europe, notably in relation to climate impacts. This potential can be realised through the training of a new generation of experts on the topic.CLIMES achieves excellence in research through an interdisciplinary approach bridging academia, the private, public and third sectors, fostering cross-pollination between research fields as diverse as climate science, urban sociology, electrical engineering, data science and epidemiology. This effort is timely, and leverages newly-developed climate datasets and Artificial Intelligence tools to open unexplored avenues in the study of impacts of climate extremes. Excellence in training leverages the breadth and depth of the CLIMES consortium, enabling CLIMES doctoral candidates to become climate impacts experts. The doctoral candidates will combine a thorough scientific understanding of impacts of climate extremes with a practical knowledge of user-relevant information, climate policy and climate service commercialisation. This prepares them for a broad range of careers, across academia, the private, public and third sectors.