Ouranos is proud to announce that Montréal will host the coordination office of Regional Information for Society (RIfS), a new project under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The organization will receive 2.8 million dollars in financial support from the 2030 Plan for a Green Economy over the first five start-up years, in addition to a $250,000 grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec over five years. Montréal International supported Ouranos in attracting the RIfS to the city, and will continue its efforts to facilitate its establishment and foster collaborations with the local ecosystem.
The RIfS Project aims to strengthen ties between research on climate and the information needs of societies and governments. The project will make it possible to guide international research efforts in order to answer critical questions being asked by decision-makers in the public and private sectors, thereby enabling them to make informed climate change policy choices at local and regional levels.
A key scientific pillar in this new core project is the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) which will continue to advance and coordinate the science and application of regional climate downscaling. Along with contributions from other WCRP activities this will provide RIfS with the necessary tools to advance the understanding of primary climate drivers of risk for specific sectors on multiple temporal and spatial scales, and their relation to regional climate change and variability.
“The establishment of the new WCRP core project: Regional Information for Society places people even more centrally in the WCRP portfolio. Ouranos has long been a global leader in provision of climate information and services. Working together with Ouranos and all our global participants, we – the RIfS leadership - are confident of achieving our common goal of providing the foundations for a more climate resilient society”.
-Sara C Pryor, Cornell University and RIfS co-chair.
An international call for applications for the office director position will be launched shortly.
