The Grand Challenges ended at the end of 2022
The WCRP Grand Challenges represent areas of emphasis in scientific research, modelling, analysis and observations for WCRP and its affiliate projects in the coming decade. They were developed by the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) through consultation with WCRP sponsors, stakeholders and affiliate networks of scientists. WCRP promotes the Grand Challenges through community-organized workshops, conferences and strategic planning meetings to identify exciting and high-priority research that requires international partnership and coordination, and that yields “actionable information” for decision makers.
The Grand Challenges:
- are both highly specific and highly focused, identifying a specific barrier preventing progress in a critical area of climate science;
- enable the development of targeted research efforts with the likelihood of significant progress over 5-10 years, even if their ultimate success is uncertain;
- enable the implementation of effective and measurable performance metrics;
- are transformative - a Grand Challenge should bring the best minds to the table (voluntarily), building and strengthening communities of collaborative innovators, perhaps also extending beyond “in-house expertise”;
- capture the public’s imagination - teams of renowned scientists working to solve pressing challenges; and
- offer compelling storylines to capture the interest of media and the public.
The current Grand Challenges are:
Click on the hexagons to go to the respective Grand Challenge:
