European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) comes to Bonn

The Council of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has decided today that Bonn will be a new location for the European authority from 2021. This is a forward-looking decision for the University of Bonn and its partners in the region.

Only recently, the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne and Forschungszentrum Jülich founded a joint Center for Earth System Observation and Computational Analysis (CESOC). Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kusche, CESOC founding director at the University of Bonn, says: "The location is predestined for activities in the European programs 'Copernicus' and 'digital Earth'. Bonn, Cologne and Jülich have the required high level of expertise and Bonn's location in the middle of Europe is ideal".

"Together with our partners, we are extremely pleased about this decision, which will have a great impact not only on Bonn, but on the entire Rhineland Science Region", says Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch, the Rector of the University of Bonn. "With CESOC, with the University of Cologne and Forschungszentrum Jülich and us have established an important and internationally recognized center for top-level research in the field of Earth system observation. I am convinced that many synergies will emerge in the future in the area of strategic alliances".

According to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), the ECMWF will employ around 150 staff and be located on a federally owned site in Bad Godesberg-North. According to the plan, the first staff members of the ECMWF are to move to the interim location at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Bonn in the first half of 2021.

https://www.uni-bonn.de/news/300-2020

Photo: Volker Lannert/Uni Bonn