ASPECT is a European project investigating and providing seamless climate information for up to 30 years ahead for sectoral applications. The project works closely with three users from the agriculture, finance and governance sectors to co-develop climate predictions and projections, providing them with state-of-the-art information for adaptation to climate change.

We are excited to announce an opportunity for two organisations involved in any societally important sectors to engage with the ASPECT project and become a “Super User”, taking part in our multi-sector user forum. This is an exclusive opportunity to become an integral part of the project over the next three years. The two Super Users will be selected in an open competition, giving them the chance to work closely with scientists to help co-develop climate services (products or information that will help you make informed decisions) for societally important sectors across a range of timescales.

What is a Super User?

A Super User is a user that has an understanding of the benefits that climate information can provide for the adaptation of their activities to a changing climate, and that aims to pioneer the use of the enhanced and seamless climate information provided by the ASPECT project. As a Super User, you will engage with leading climate services specialists from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Met Office (UK) in order to co-produce state-of-the-art climate predictions and projections. The information provided will span from seasons to decades, ensuring that it is both useful and easily usable.

Why should you apply?

As an ASPECT Super Users, you will be the first to test and access the novel services developed in ASPECT. Among other benefits, becoming a Super User will allow you to:

• Make better informed strategic decisions for resilience to climate change and extreme weather;
• Develop your understanding on extreme weather and climate risks, working directly with experts from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Met Office;
• Help co-produce useful and usable state-of-the-art seasonal-to-decadal prediction information that will benefit many other organisations.

Who can apply?

It is an open competition, but we would like to particularly invite international organisations involved in societally important sectors, such as organisations focusing on, for example, energy, transport or health.

How will Super Users be involved?

We would expect Super Users to attend meetings with our Climate Services scientists throughout the project and openly share information that helps us understand your weather and climate risks. There will be no cost to Super Users to engage with project scientists and practitioners. However, a certain time commitment and willingness to share relevant information is expected to ensure the climate services developed by the project are tailored to your needs.

Apply now!

You can express your interest in becoming an ASPECT Super User by submitting your details here. After submitting your details, you will receive the full Application Form with questions about your company and your suitability as a potential Super User that you should fill in by 27 October 2023.

In October and November, there will be further interviews with shortlisted applicants, and the new Super Users will be announced by 31 December 2023. Please do not hesitate to contact us at hello.aspect@bsc.es if you have any questions prior to submitting this application form.

Unfortunately, there are only 2 Super User places available, and these Super Users will be selected through a balance of criteria including diversity of geographical location, being involved in a sector of societal importance, current levels of engagement with weather and climate, keenness to engage, impact and openness. We will be shortlisting applicants for interviews based on their completed Application Forms.

We would like to encourage any potential Super Users to engage with the ASPECT User Forum whether or not they are selected, as you will receive benefit to your organisation through the User Forum experience, including potential opportunities such as being involved in the expansion of prototype services to a wider range of sectors, and developing relationships with climate scientists working on climate risk and adaptation.

To be part of our User Community, please do also sign up to the ASPECT mailing list and follow us on social media (see the Contact Us page of our website), so that you receive all ASPECT updates and information about our User Forums.

What is ASPECT about?

ASPECT is a Horizon Europe project involving a range of leading weather and climate scientists and services specialists from across Europe. Scientists in the ASPECT project are leading the development of seasonal to decadal predictions, producing ‘seamless’ climate predictions covering the next 30 years. These predictions are critical for a range of societally important climate change adaptation decisions over a range of sectors, regions, time-scales and decision-making levels. The changes to extreme weather that we are all facing now and into the future will impact organisations and businesses across many sectors. By considering risk arising from seasonal to decadal timescales in a seamless way, together we can start to plan the most effective strategies for building climate resilience. Examples of climate service prototypes provided by the project could include tailored guidance around weather and climate risks, or an accessible portal or dashboard to help access state-of-the-art climate information in a useful and usable way.

The bespoke prototypes developed with Super Users will be designed to be scalable and will help develop climate service solutions that work across different sectors of society. Prototype development plays an important part on the path towards future operational services that integrate seasonal to decadal predictions with climate projections.

More information about ASPECT can be found across our website, and by following us on Twitter, or LinkedIn.