Utrecht University and ECMWF Sign Agreement to Develop a Quality Control Concept for DestinE 

Utrecht University, in collaboration with expert representatives from five other European institutions, is constructing a quality control (QC) framework to instruct the activities of Destination Earth (DestinE), specifically, the two high-priority digital twins and connected impact sector models. 

The consortium will assess best practices and behaviours from European climate and weather services like ECMWF and Copernicus, as well as national meteorological and hydrological services. Learnings from this analysis will facilitate the adoption of guidelines specifically tailored to DestinE applications.  

Additionally, existing QC frameworks for operational services and machine learning-based uncertainty methods at ECMWF, such as the Bayesian Neural Networks and the Ensemble Model Output Statistics, will be critically evaluated and used to guide the design and production of the new robust quality control concept. 

Overall, the contracted team members will coordinate an end-to-end comprehensive QC roadmap for implementation that will overcome traditional challenges associated with computing power and data storage. This is imperative as the DestinE digital twins will generate significant volumes of data daily. The team is also expected to demonstrate a link between Copernicus services and the DestinE digital twins, paving a pathway for future synergies and the potential co-development of QC methods.  

The Team Involved 

Utrecht University will lead the specialised consortium, with dedicated experts across a wide range of fields related to QC for climate and weather operation services, impact sector applications and uncertainty qualifications. The Italian National Research Council (CNR), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), CoLAB  +Atlantic (+Atlantic) and Serco Italia are the remaining members of the mentioned consortium. 

Note that this was a procurement call and organisations that would like to contribute to DestinE in the future should monitor the DestinE Procurements and Other Procurements areas of the website and join the community. 

Read the full article on the development and objectives of the Utrecht University & ECMWF Quality Control Agreement on the ECMWF DestinE website: Utrecht University to design conceptual framework for DestinE’s digital twins’ Quality Control