Millions of euros to interdisciplinary research on extreme weather

The European Weather Extremes: Drivers, Predictability and Impacts (EDIPI) project aims to help us better understand the dynamics, predictability and impacts of temperature, precipitation (including drought) and surface wind extremes over Europe. Why does a specific type of weather extreme occur? How can we use this knowledge to better predict it? And finally, what are the likely impacts once it does occur? We will try to answer these questions by combining very different disciplines, from climate science, to statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory, risk management, agronomy, epidemiology and more.

More about the EDIPI project

The EDIPI project is an MSCA-ITN-ETN or, more colloquially, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. The idea is to create a closely-knit group of universities, research centres and private-sector companies hinging around a cohort of doctoral students who all work on different aspects of the same broad topic. This will include research but also educational and science communication activities. EDIPI will be co-ordinated by CNDS fellow Gabriele Messori (Associate Professor at Department of Earth Sciences, Program for Air, Water and Landscape Sciences; Meteorology from Uppsala University) and with assistance from CNDS fellows Anna Rutgersson and Giuliano Di Baldassarre. Within the frame of the project, they plan to hire 14 PhD students, 3 of which in Uppsala and 11 elsewhere in Sweden and Europe. EDIPI consists of a core group of 9 universities and research centres and 11 partner organisations, including operational forecast centres and insurance and catastrophe modelling companies.

EDIPI aims to help us better understand the dynamics, predictability and impacts of temperature, precipitation (including drought) and surface wind extremes over Europe. The 14 PhD projects within EDIPI will, for example, use dynamical systems theory to understand future changes in destructive North Atlantic storms, provide improved forecasts of mortality related to temperature extremes in Europe, help us better understand how the skill of heatwave forecasts may be affected by climate change, and study vulnerability to compound hot/dry and hot/humid climate extremes.

Which universities will participate in the project?

Uppsala University, Stockholm University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, ETH Zürich, Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique, Imperial College London, Barcelona Institute for Global Health and Tel Aviv University.

For more information contact Gabriele Messori