
About us
JPI Climate is an initiative of European member states and associated members to align national programmes by jointly coordinating their climate research and funding new transnational research activities.
About us
JPI Climate is an initiative of European member states and associated members to align national programmes by jointly coordinating their climate research and funding new transnational research activities. Transnational coordination of the research base aims to overcome unwanted fragmentation, to make better use of public R&D resources by creating synergies and to facilitate cross border collaboration between top scientists.
JPI Climate connects various scientific disciplines, enables cross-border research and increases science-practice interaction. The ambition of JPI Climate is to significantly contribute to underpinning the European efforts in tackling the societal challenge of climate change.
JPI Climate:
- aims to respond to the knowledge needs of policy and the European society at large to address climate change, and to:
- foster an excellent science base, world-class research infrastructures and a new generation of researchers;
- cooperate with partners in advanced, emerging and developing countries;
- achieve greater impacts through involvement of the public and private sectors in knowledge creation and mobilisation;
- innovate with the end-users on societal transformation for resilience and sustainability.
- provides a platform to align national research priorities according to a jointly agreed Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) with the aim of complementing and supporting initiatives at the European level (ERA-NETs, Horizon 2020, Climate KIC, ESFRI Projects, Copernicus)
- facilitates the coordination, collaboration and exploitation of synergies in climate change research, learning and innovation while working against fragmentation and duplication of efforts
- connects different disciplinary approaches in natural and social sciences leading to interdisciplinary research efforts of higher quality and relevance
- connects top researchers and research groups from different European countries, leading to high quality and efficient research efforts, long term collaborations and a stronger global position
- connects scientific insights with the demands of policy makers, decision makers and other stakeholders from local to international levels, leading to more effective policies
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Vision, Objective and Principles
Europe aspires to be the most competitive and dynamic knowledge‐based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic development with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. Climate change alters the conditions under which these ambitions are to be realised. This generates new challenges, including the need to transform energy systems away from a dependence on fossil fuels and the need to protect European citizens, business and nature from climate risks. Research, knowledge dissemination and innovation are crucial in helping to confront these challenges and generate new opportunities for sustainable development. Climate change is a complex reality, which affects European society at large. Understanding and responding to climate change requires coordinated and large‐scale European efforts, in research, innovation and governance.
JPI Climate provides the platform where these objectives can be met, aligning national research priorities according to a jointly agreed Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) with the aim of complementing and supporting initiatives at the European level (ERA-NETs, Horizon 2020, Climate KIC, ESFRI Projects, Copernicus). JPI Climate facilitates the coordination, collaboration and exploitation of synergies while working against unwanted fragmentation and duplication of efforts. Coordination of the research base secured through national resources will help underpin European efforts to confront climate change. JPI Climate aims to respond to the needs of policy and decision makers and the European society at large for knowledge‐based information and services to address climate change.
JPI Climate is innovative in its interdisciplinary approach in connecting natural‐ with socio‐economic sciences and it is guided, coordinated and managed through a flexible collaborative governance mechanism.
Main objective
The main objective of JPI Climate is to bring together existing and developing new excellent scientific knowledge that is needed to assist practitioners to adequately transform society towards climate resilience and consequently providing integrated climate knowledge and decision support services for societal innovation.
Governance Principles
The governance principles derive from both the thematic contents, addressed by JPI Climate, as well as the strategic objectives of the JPI Climate concept itself. They provide support to assure coherence between ‘what’ we are working on and ‘how’ we are working. In addition, they represent procedural objectives that broaden the scope for advancements and provide motivation for constant improvement. Read more.
JPI Climate Member Countries
JPI Climate members are European countries that have formally declared their commitment and willingness to actively contribute to JPI operations (with their work force, financial resources, and existing research and innovation investments, etc.) by signing a Letter of Intent. In order for a membership to be valid, a new member needs to be formally adopted by the Governing Board.
The member countries are represented by institutions that are legally allowed to take strategic decisions on behalf of and engage resources from national research funds (e.g. ministries for science and research, academy of sciences, scientific institutions and agencies) and thereby to represent the national research interests of the member countries.

At present the JPI Climate has 19 Member countries:
Partners from Greece, Portugal and Slovakia (in violet) were involved in the framework of the “European Research Area for Climate Services” (ERA4CS).
Observer institutions are:
- European Environment Agency (EEA)
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA)
JPI Climate collaborates with the Belmont Forum, the global group of sustainability research funders. Brazil, China, India, Japan and Qatar have collaborated with JPI Climate in a joint Collaborative Research action on Climate Predictability and Inter-regional Linkages which ended in 2020.
The principal JPI Climate governance bodies are:
- Governing Board: All member countries are represented in the Governing Board (GB) by funding organisations relevant for JPI-related climate research. The role of the Governing Board is to guide overall strategic orientation. The Governing Board is supported by a Executive Committee that is responsible for overseeing the operational management of the JPI Action Groups.
- Central Secretariat: The overall coordination and day-to-day management of the initiative is supported by a Central Secretariat (CS). The CS is instructed by the GB , works closely with the Executive Committee and the JPI Climate Chair and reports to the GB. The GB elects an Executive Committee for a period of 2 years, renewable once.
- Action Groups: The Action Groups (AG) involve representatives of the JPI members and observers. They are appointed by the Governing Board and headed by up to two members and two additional countries that are interested in participating in the AG. Action Groups are in charge of the operational and programmatic activities of the JPI themes. They prepare working papers that are to be adopted by the Governing Board. Each Action Group has a spokesperson to the GB to represent the Action Group in the Executive Committee.
- Transdisciplinary Advisory Board: This board, consisting of national and international members from academia and from relevant stakeholder groups, advises the Governing Board on specific issues on request. This Transdisciplinary Advisory Board is an important instrument to involve relevant stakeholder groups.
- SRIA Scoping Forum: The SRIA Scoping Forum is organised every two years as a major exchange forum for researchers and stakeholders of different horizons, all invested in, relying on, or using climate change knowledge. The SRIA Scoping Forum is preceded by a series of scoping workshops and will build upon the outcomes of these workshops.
Read more about the JPI Climate Governance.
The governance structure of JPI Climate has been revised in line with its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.
Governance Structure

Governance Principle
The governance principles derive from both the thematic contents, addressed by JPI Climate as well, as the strategic objectives of the JPI Climate concept itself. They provide support to assure coherence between ‘what’ we are working on and ‘how’ we are working. In addition, they represent procedural objectives that broaden the scope for advancements and provide motivation for constant improvement.
Hitherto discussions have mostly addressed the rationales of these principles. In order to put them into effect in our future work, we – however – need to reflect on what these principles mean to us and, more specifically, our operations. For these reasons the principles and related objectives have been formulated ambitiously.
The following principles have been addressed in the context of different discussions on the JPI Climate:
Sustainability principle
Objective: To take into account the challenges of climate change in the work of JPI Climate, based on active reflection of operations (e.g. “green meetings”) and to formulate the endeavour of constant improvement of the operations’ climate performance.
Rationale: In consideration of the grand societal challenge of climate change being central to research efforts that are initiated by JPI Climate, its members seek to contribute to mitigating the carbon footprint of its work and activities. In doing so, the JPI Climate governance is committed to increasing the credibility of climate impact research and function as a role model for other groups of society in terms of responsible, climate-friendly science and research.
Stakeholder orientation principle
Objective: To integrate the knowledge, values and objectives of societal decision-makers in the implementation and operation of the JPI Climate through the active participation of stakeholder group representatives in accordance with the JPI Climate mission.
Rationale: The JPI ‘Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe’ aims to improve the utilisation of scientific knowledge on climate change in societal decision-making processes. Therefore the involvement of stakeholders from civil society, politics and the business sector is crucial when it comes to identifying themes and setting up research agendas.
Adaptability principle
Objective: To enable the JPI Climate’s thematic framework to respond to novel scientific insights and research requirements, current states of societal transformations and potential demands due to sudden social-ecological crises.
Rationale: JPI Climate is setting up a research framework on a strategic, long-term basis. Alongside its overall objective to facilitate societal transformation by improving the utilisation of scientific knowledge on climate change in societal decision-making processes, in the course of its operations it is very likely that the JPI’s mission will be subject to shifting and novel research needs and priorities. The JPI’s governance structure therefore needs to allow for the adaptation of the JPI’s operations to these changing framework conditions where necessary.
Transparency principle
Objective: To base the collaborative efforts encompassed within JPI Climate development and implementation on the notions of openness, mutual learning, mutual dependency and joint creativity; and to foster the free flow and sharing of information, experiences and opinions.
Rationale: Access to knowledge and information is a prerequisite for individual and mutual learning processes. Given the grand and complex societal challenge that is addressed by JPI Climate, fostering both is a prerequisite for successful completion of the JPI Climate mission. Allowing access to knowledge and information within JPI Climate – a multi-level, multi-stakeholder institution – for both internal work and external information is not a trivial task and therefore requires active and continuous deliberation and promotion.
Cost efficiency principle
Objective: To limit superfluous duplication of scientific/technical outputs, research and funding activities.
Rationale: Joint Programming is based on coordinating European research efforts to increase its capacities to tackle grand societal challenges, such as climate change. An understood objective of the JPI Climate operations is therefore to use its existing resources in a cost-efficient manner. In order to meet this objective, JPI Climate needs to assess the availability of present and potential joint initiatives and joint calls at European and international level pertaining to the same or related topics to build up inter-linkages and streamline activities with potential partner initiatives.
Governing Board
The Governing Board provides guidance in terms of the overall strategic orientation and structure of the initiative. All member countries will be represented by people who are mandated to take strategic decisions and to engage resources from various sources at national level for JPI-related climate change research.
The Governing Board is advised by the Transdisciplinary Advisory Board as well as by the Informal Group of AG Speakers. It receives strategic and operational support by the Executive Committee (ExCom) and the Central Secretariat (CS).
- Karolina Begusch-Pfefferkorn (AT) – Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
- Katrin Brugger (AT) – Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA)
- Maaike Vancauwenberghe (BE) – Belgian Science Policy – BELSPO
- Aline Van der Werf (BE) – Belgian Science Policy – BELSPO
- Jaana Roos (FI) – Academy of Finland
- Johanna Särkijärvi (FI) – Ministry of Transport and Communications
- Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard (FR) – French National Research Agency
- Anne Puech (FR) – Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation
- Alain Lagrange (FR) – Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation
- Gregor Laumann (DE) – German Aerospace Center DLR
- Elisabeth Heilgeist (DE) – Federal Ministry of Education and Research
- Frank McGovern (IE) – Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Climate Change Unit
- Darragh O’Neill (IE) – Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Antonio Navarra (IT) – Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change – CCMC
- Giulia Galluccio (IT) – Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change – CCMC
- Ingunn Borlaug (NO) – Research Council of Norway
- Ole-Kristian Kvissel (NO) – Norwegian Environment Agency
- Malin Mobjörk (SE) – Swedish Research Council Formas
- Roald Wolters (NL) – Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
- Anne-Marie Hitipeuw-Gribnau (NL) – Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
- Jelte Verberne (NL) – The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
- Lizzie Garratt (UK) – Natural Environment Research Council – NERC
- Pete Falloon (UK) – Met Office
- Daniel Hanšpach (CZ) – Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
- Zoltán Rakonczay (non voting member) – European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, Climate Action and Earth Observation
List of Associated members
- Bo Frølund (DK) – Innovation Foundation
- Anja Skjoldborg Hansen (DK) – Aarhus University
- Getlyn Denks (EE) – Estonian Ministry of Environment
- Balázs Molnár (HU) – Ministry for Innovation and Technology
- Monica Alexandru (RO) – National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation
- Meltem Ünlü Tokcaer (TR) The Scientific and TechnologicalResearch Council of Turkey (Tübitak)
- Estrella Fernandez Garcia (ES) – Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
List of Observer Institutions
- Hans-Martin Füssel – European Environment Agency (EEA)
- Sissi Knispel de Acosta– European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA)
- Pierre-Philippe Mathieu – European Space Agency (ESA)
JPI Climate Central Secretariat
- Petra Manderscheid – Executive Director
- Michael Depuydt – Science Officer
- Maija Malnaca – Science and Communication Officer
- Kanika Singh – Junior Science Officer
Transdisciplinary Advisory Board
The Transdisciplinary Advisory Board (TAB) consists of national and international members from academia and from relevant stakeholder groups. It advises the Governing Board on specific issues upon request. This overall Advisory Board is an important instrument to involve relevant stakeholder groups.
Scientists
- Simon Bolwig (DK) – Roskilde University, Denmark, area of expertise – Geography (mitigation + sustainable energy)
- Eric Brun (FR) – Ministry in charge of the Environment, area of expertise – Mountain’s climatology, climate modelling
- Suraje Dessai (UK) – University of Leeds, area of expertise – Climate resilience, perception of climate risks and the science-policy interface in climate change science
- Martin Drews (DK) – Technical university of Denmark, area of expertise – Climate modelling, climate and weather extremes, statistical methods, remote sensing
- Daniela Jacob (DE) – Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), area of expertise – Climatology, regional climate, climate services
- Maud Huynen (NL) – Maastricht University, area of expertise – Climate change and health, sustainability science
- Maria Fernanda Rollo (PT) – Universidade Nova de Lisboa, area of expertise – Contemporary history, SHIFT co-lead, technologies and education
- María José Sanz (ES) – Basque Centre for Climate Change, area of expertise – Climate change policy, land use, air pollution, carbon and nitrogen cycles
- Rowan Sutton (UK) – National centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, area of expertise – Climate variability, predictability and risk assessment, Earth System Models
- Hervé Le Treut (FR) – Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, area of expertise – climate science
- Josephine van Zeben (NL) – Wageningen University, area of expertise – Environmental law and policy, EU law
Stakeholders
- Per Anker-Nilssen (NO) – Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), area of expertise – business
- Ghislain Dubois (FR) – TEC Consultants, Marseille, area of expertise – research consultancy
- Ingvild Marthinsen (NO) – Nordre Follo Municipality, area of expertise – Marine biology
- Claude Nahon (FR) – Électricité de France, area of expertise – Business (electricity sector)
- Lucia Di Paola (DE) – ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, area of expertise – Urban sustainability, local governance, social justice
- Wolfgang Pfeffercorn (AT) – International Commission for Protection of the Alps – CIPRA, area of expertise – NGO
- Stefan Ropac (AT) – WWF Austria, area of expertise – Green transitions, NGO-private sector interface
- Joy Shumake-Guillemot (CH) – WHO/World Meteorological Organisation Climate and Health Office, area of expertise – Environmental health, Climate Adaptation Policy
- Katarzyna Smetek (PL) – Youth climate council Poland, area of expertise – Youth engagement, intergenerational dialogue, climate education and awareness raising
- Florin Vladu (RO) – UNFCCC, area of expertise – Environment and Climate change, technologies for adaptation to climate change
Action Groups
The operational and programmatic activities of the JPI will be conducted by Action Groups (AGs), appointed by the Governing Board (GB) for a period of 4 years in principle, but are the subject to modification according to the GB decision. Members of the AGs are representatives of the JPI members, with the mandate to represent national research funders organised in the JPI. The AGs prepare working papers on the operational and programmatic activities of the JPI that are to be adopted by the GB.
AGs are established with a longer-term, procedural character, as they correspond to a strategic orientation of JPI development. The AGs and the national AG representatives can decide to request advice for the activities by additional experts.
AG operational tasks (organisation-related activities) are:
- Revising the governance structure of the JPI
- Analysis and assessment of transnational activity vehicles such as joint initiatives and joint calls; developing and revising implementation schemes for research programs
- Developing and revising communication and dissemination schemes (dissemination and use of research findings, IPR)
- Developing and revising transnational activity evaluation procedures (peer-review)
- Monitoring and facilitating independent evaluations of the JPI according to its governance principles
Action Group programmatic tasks (content-related activities) are:
- Developing and revising the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA)
- Implementing the SRA in terms of transnational activities based on the SRA (sub-) modules and joint research areas between the modules
- Communicating and reconciling programming activities with national and transnational partner initiatives
The AGs should report to the GB regularly (i.e. at least during GB meetings) about their progress.
List of current JPI Climate Action Groups:
- Action Group 1 “Climate predictability and Inter-Regional Linkages” Objective: 2015 Jiont Call with the Belmont Forum. Status: Finalised
- Action Group 2 “European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS)” Objective: 2016 Jiont Call and Additional Activities for joint vision and alignment. Status: Finalised
- Action Group 3 “Green House Gases: emissions, removals and management systems” Objective: Strategic alignment of national programmes and research infrastructures. Status: Ongoing
- Action Group 4 “Assessment of Cross – sectoral climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation (AXIS)” Objective: Alignment of national programmes, 2017 ERA-NET for JPI Climate towards 2018 Joint Call. Status: Ongoing
- Action Group 5 “Next generation of climate sciences in Europe” Objective: Strategic alignment of national climate sciences programming through road mapping (white papers) of research priorities, observation, models, data sharing and research infrastructures. Status: Ongoing
- Action Group 6 “Enabling societal transformation in the face of climate change”. Objective: Promote the Social Sciences and Humanities as key disciplines in the sustainable societal transformation in the context of climate change. Status: Ongoing
- Action Group 7 “Internationalisation of the JPI Climate (SINCERE)”. Objective: Aims at implementing activities that further open JPI Climate to international cooperation partners, including in Latin America, Africa or Asia, and that encourage engagement of a wider group of EU Member States in this initiative. Status: Finalised
JPI Climate until 2016
In March 2008, the European Council called on the Commission and Member States to explore the potential of Joint Programming to pool national research efforts to be launched by 2010 (EC, 2008. Germany took in 2009 the initiative to develop a proposal regarding a Joint Programming Initiative in the area of climate change research, which has led to the development of “Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe” (Clik’EU) that was initiated by six core countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands) with the support of other countries (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and United Kingdom).
In January 2011, a preliminary strategic research agenda was prepared and an organisational structure agreed. The first meeting of the Governing Board was held in May 2011 where the first JPI Climate Strategic Research Agenda was adopted.
The European Commission advised positively on the JPI Climate proposal on 21 October 2011 (EC, 2011) and the Competitiveness Council meeting of 6 December 2011 adopted the conclusion to launch five JPIs, including JPI Climate (Council of the European Union, 2011).
Since May 2011, 17 countries have committed to pool resources to implement joint activities, among which 13 are full members (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom) and four associated members (Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia, Turkey). (Read more about the members).
It was agreed to focus on four research themes which were developed in implementation plans by four Working Groups. A Management Committee was formed by the countries of the four Working Group leaders and the two additional countries that initiated the programme (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands).
In 2015, with the intention to take into account recent developments, both in climate and climate-related research, but also within the the political context after the Paris Agreement and also the socio-economic environment, the JPI Climate Governing Board decided to revise and update the its Strategic Research Agenda (initially published in 2011). The new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda has been adopted by the JPI Climate Governing Board in May 2016.
Other documentation
- JPI Climate Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe, Approach and results of Mapping National Research programmes
- JPI Climate Governance Structure
- Position Paper JPI Climate and Horizon 2020
- Commission Recommendation on JPI Climate
- JPI Climate Launch Report
- JPI Climate Strategic Research Agenda (2011)
- JPI Climate proposal ‘Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe’ (21 April 2010)

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