The PREDDYCT project led by Ortega, co-leader of the BSC's Climate Variability and Change group, recognised with one of the most prestigious scientific grants at European level
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) researcher Pablo Ortega, co-leader of the Climate Variability and Change (CVC) group in the Earth Sciences department. Ortega is the principal investigator of the PREDDYCT project, which will offer new conceptual and methodological perspectives to drive advances in the realism and reliability of climate predictions on a global scale.
Climate predictions are the most valuable tools available to society to support socio-economic decision-making and to develop adaptation strategies from regional to local scales. Their level of accuracy is determined by the understanding of the climate system and the ability to simulate it correctly.
PREDDYCT will use a new generation of climate models with unprecedented resolution and precision to understand the contribution of ocean eddies to North Atlantic climate prediction. These eddies are small-scale circular currents in the deep ocean that play a key role in the evolution of global climate. The aim is to significantly improve our ability to predict European climate and the likelihood of extreme climate events.
One of the most prestigious grants at European level
The ERC Consolidator Grant is one of the most prestigious awards at European level and aims to support leading scientists and academics in setting up independent research teams to develop some of the most promising scientific ideas in a variety of fields. The funding, amounting to a total of €678 million, is awarded through the EU's Horizon Europe programme.
The 328 researchers awarded the grants will carry out their projects in universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and other countries associated with Horizon Europe. The largest number of grants have been awarded in Germany (67 projects), France (38), the UK (38), the Netherlands (37) and Spain (21). In terms of the nationalities of the researchers, the grant recipients are mainly German (60 researchers), French (34), Italian (29), Spanish (23) and British (23).
According to the ERC, these grants will create some 2,750 jobs for postdocs, PhD researchers and other staff at the institutions receiving them.