EXtremeClimTwin: Building capacity on climate extremes through cooperation
Increasing heat extremes, reduced summer precipitation and higher rainfall intensities are some of the climate change impacts facing the Western Balkans. To strengthen local researchers’ ability to understand the current and coming changes in climate extremes, CICERO researchers are involved in an EU funded capacity building project with the University of Novi Sad in Serbia.
THE PROJECT EXTREMECLIMTWIN IS FOCUSED ON STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SERBIA IN THE FIELD OF CLIMATE EXTREMES. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Project details
The Horizon 2020 project EXtremeClimTwin aims to reinforce and improve the research and innovation capacity of the Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad in Serbia in the areas of climate change and hydro-climate extremes through twinning and establishing of collaborative networks with internationally leading research institutions. In addition to CICERO, the German research company Climate Risk Analysis and the Loughborough University in the UK are partners in the project. The collaboration will involve both early-stage and senior researchers at the University of Novi Sad.
In EXtremeClimTwin, a key part of the project is to provide capacity building and knowledge transfer through the organization of lectures, training and workshops to enhance excellence in climate research with a focus on extreme events. CICERO researchers contribute with technical expertise such as programming, statistical analysis, data management, but also more theoretical knowledge of climate research on climate extremes and indices, attribution, physical aspects of climate extremes, or questions related to risk assessment and decision making.
“The Western Balkans will be increasingly affected by various types of climate extremes in the future. CICERO will help equip partners at the University of Novi Sad to research these extremes by sharing the expertise we have here”, said Carley Iles, a senior researcher at CICERO taking part in the project.
The EXtremeClimTwin project is also strengthening capacity at CICERO as it gives CICERO researchers an opportunity to develop their teaching skills by preparing both theoretical lectures and practical tasks. Moreover, CICERO’s own PhD students are also benefitting from the training activities taking place as a part of the EXtremeClimTwin project.
“The EXtremeClimTwin crash course in methods used in climate science for PhD students was very useful for me and my PhD”, said Iulia Marginean, an environmental scientist and researcher at CICERO currently doing her PhD on climate impacts on human health at the University in Oslo.
CICERO will also take part in expert visits between CICERO and the University of Novi Sad and other capacity building activities.
Facts about the EXtremeClimTwin project
Full name of project: Twinning for the advancement of data-driven multidisciplinary research into hydroclimatic extremes to support risk assessment and decision making
Overall objective: To sustainably strengthen research and enhance networking skills in the field of hydro-climate extremes between UNSPMF and internationally-leading counterparts in EU Climate Risk Analysis (CRA, Germany), Loughborough University, Department of Geography and Environment (LU, UK), and the Center for International Climate Research (CICERO, Norway) and to make the results available to the international community and relevant stakeholders (companies, citizens, and authorities).
The project is coordinated by the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences (UNSPMF) in Serbia
Project website: https://extremeclimtwin.pmf.uns.ac.rs/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952384
