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.
Stay up to date with all research and results of JPI Climate.
Subscribe for our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest information.
"*" indicates required fields