The past year has seen one of the largest ever European technological enterprises in weather & climate taking shape, with more than 200 HPC experts, data analysts and scientists working together for the first time on a common goal: to implement and operate digital twins of the Earth system.

Nils Wedi

If I had to pick one science aspect I am pleased with, I would say that the work on the km-scale simulations is going exactly in the direction we were hoping it would go: we demonstrated both benefits but also importantly caveats of the km-scale simulations, and we are now working on addressing these - and this work is feeding directly into our ECMWF strategy. 

Irina Sandu

“I joined ECMWF last year to work on DestinE’s Digital Twin model for extreme weather events. One of the most enjoyable aspects of my work is the fantastic team here in Bonn. Brilliant and highly motivated people from all over Europe work together to make this project a success story.”

Birgit Sützl

“The DestinE capabilities should be co-designed with users. Engaging relevant users of the DestinE System already at the earliest stages of development is as challenging as it is central to our success. In this first year we have started building links and partnerships with selected stakeholders and user institutions. The first five contracted use cases will be important vehicles for substantiating these. Also, I was thrilled to see the large interest in DestinE at our initial DestinE User eXchange, which attracted over 400 participants.”

Jörn Hoffmann

“Destination Earth is not only a cutting-edge technology project that will help to understand the earth’s climate even better, but it also was a marvellous opportunity for ECMWF to grow as an organization. Running all EU-funded activities from Bonn means ECMWF has moved from a single-site to a multi-site inter-governmental powerhouse inside 5 years. That has brought about many challenges, some of which touch upon fundamental legal relations of the Centre. It has been a pleasure to see how adaptive both the Centre and all its Member States have been throughout this process – and an honour for the Legal Services Team to be a part of that!” 

Gregor Wettberg

“DestinE is a real enabler of collaborations in Europe in both the technical and scientific arena, ranging from extremes and climate prediction, visualisation, high-performance computing (with the support of EuroHPC) to application areas such as energy production, urban heat, forestry and flooding. At ECMWF alone, we collaborate on these topics with over 50 organisation from national services, academia and industry, leveraging their expertise to realise the vision of Destination Earth.”

Daniel Thiemert

"My favourite part of DestinE is the way it brings together a diverse range of experts from meteorologists to machine learners, all aiming towards a common goal. If you have a question, chances are there is an expert sitting a couple of doors away! "

Mariana Clare

"It has been important to me to be a part of the first year journey because I have had the freedom to learn from the wider ECMWF community, but then to shape the internal financial processes to fit to DE from the beginning, (hopefully) in sustainable way. I interact with the colleagues across the sites dealing with minor expenses to M€ contracts. It is fulfilling to be involved in every aspect of the finance and seeing how it all pieces together over the whole life this exciting and truly collaborative initiative."

Megan Thompson

“It has been an absolute pleasure to be part of this team's journey during its first year. The diversity and collaboration among our team members and contractors have been a highlight for me. We have contractors and subcontractors from 24 different countries working towards one same goal. I have gained so much knowledge from my colleagues and I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such talented and dedicated individuals. We have all been on a steep learning curve, but I am excited to continue growing and learning together as we move forward." 

 Juan Batlle Mercade

It is fair to say that ECMWF stands out as the leading provider of ideas, drives the science-technology revolution and manages the complex responsibility over all science, technology, legal, communication, accounting, contracts, human resource hurdles very smoothly. This is thanks to you, and many ECMWF staff members who are not funded by DestinE who have helped to make this happen."

Peter Bauer

Here's to a brilliant year and a brilliant team!