New chapter for CORDEX: International Project Office is moving

A global initiative for regional climate information

CORDEX (Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment) is a global initiative under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The goal is to produce climate information at the regional and local levels that is robust, comparable, and easy to use for social planning, risk assessments, and climate adaptation.

CORDEX was created after the IPCC's fourth climate report (2007), which clearly showed that there was a lack of detailed regional information on climate development. As CORDEX grew in scope, the IPOC project office was established in 2015 to coordinate the network, support the Science Advisory Team community's scientific advice and the work in CORDEX's 14 domains, and to strengthen dialogue and knowledge exchange/capacity development with users. SMHI was appointed host thanks to its long experience of regional climate modeling and data management.

What the office has achieved during its time at SMHI

In just over ten years at SMHI, the office has, among other things:

• Contributed to SMHI delivering the most regional climate simulations globally – data used by researchers, in IPCC reports, and in climate adaptation work around the world.
• Organized and run international CORDEX conferences and workshop series around the world. These include the KINGA/African Atlas workshop series.
• Strengthened capacity building in developing countries through education and training in the use of climate information.
• Initiated and supported SMHI projects such as CRD4Africa, CARL, WACCA, FRACTAL, and several Copernicus initiatives.
• Represented CORDEX in international research and policy forums, including COP and IPCC.

Looking ahead: CORDEX SMHI continues to be part of the global CORDEX community, which we have seen benefits our research, our projects, our opportunities for collaboration, and our society. SMHI continues to work on capacity development in various international projects and to organize workshops together with international partners we have come into contact with through CORDEX. SMHI is also involved in the new scenarios being developed in CMIP6 and planned for CMIP7 and beyond, which means updated and higher-resolution regional downscaling. - The collaboration continues The work within CORDEX also continues to develop – with new methods such as machine learning and AI, with an increased focus on extreme events and with new collaborations in different parts of the world.

- The fact that IPOC now has a new home does not mean that SMHI's role in CORDEX is diminishing; SMHI continues to be one of the most active players in the community. In the fall of 2025, workshops are planned in Cape Town, South Africa, and Quy Nhon, Vietnam, with the networks in Africa and Asia, respectively, with the aim of creating strategies for the future and building long-term collaborations, says Iréne Lake, project manager and former director of the CORDEX project office.

Voices from the work

Those who have worked at IPOC during the time SMHI has been the host are Iréne Lake (director), Lindha Nilsson, Sophia Kark, Miranda Gatti Ståhl, Anna Eronn, EvaMarie Törnström, Helena Martins, and Eleanor O'Rourke (director during the first year). They all have memories from their work with the office, and here they share some of them.

The first director of the office was Eleanor O'Rourke.

- I became involved with CORDEX around 2013, assisting with communications activities and events. I was very pleased to be selected as director when the office began operations in January 2015. I really enjoyed working with everyone in the CORDEX community, as it is so diverse, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, with a very clear link to real-world impact. I had the privilege of traveling to CORDEX domain meetings in Bogota, Johannesburg, and Manila—experiences and people I will never forget, says Eleanor.

Iréne Lake took over as director when the office had been at SMHI for about a year, just before the third CORDEX conference, which was held in Stockholm in 2016.

- I was thrown straight into the deep end, as there was a gap between the previous director and myself, and the conference preparations were intense. Luckily, it was held in Stockholm, which made it easier to liaise with the local hosts. Many issues that had never been encountered before arose when people from all over the world were going to be attending. However, it is incredibly enjoyable to work with all these different people, and you learn a great deal. The following conferences also had their challenges, but by then I was ‘used to it’ 😊 It is enormously satisfying to think that you can contribute a little to more sustainable societies and increased equality in access to information and knowledge, says Iréne.

Lindha Nilsson started working as an administrator at the CORDEX office in the summer of 2019, just before the fourth CORDEX conference was to be held in Beijing in October of that year. It was a hectic period with many preparations to be made in collaboration with the local organizers in China and the CORDEX Scientific Council.

- It was challenging but also very rewarding work, and in the end it was really satisfying to be there and see all the pieces fall into place,” says Lindha. The sense of community and willingness to collaborate that exists between and within the regions in the CORDEX community, and seeing the benefits of the capacity-building workshops that we have helped to organize, has been one of the best parts of coordinating CORDEX's global work, says Lindha.

One of Miranda Gatti Ståhl's first assignments as a communications officer for the office was to help with the CORDEX conference in Trieste and Pune in 2023.

- It was great that the conference went so well from two different locations, Trieste and Pune, and it was great that people could participate digitally. Although it is important to meet in person sometimes to share knowledge and experiences, there are many digital opportunities that we took advantage of at the time. The CORDEX community generally shows that despite the large geographical distances between members, the collaboration works very well, says Miranda.