By Jens Ådnanes, Division of Communication, UiB
The Norwegian Research School on Changing Climate in the coupled Earth System (CHESS) are to get 19.5 million kroner (close to 2.5 Euros) by the Research Council of Norway. The school will be headed by the University of Bergen (UiB) and coordinated by Associate Professor Thomas Spengler from UiB’s Geophysical Institute.
CHESS is an addition to the education and researcher schools that UiB and theBjerknes Centre for Climate Research already provide in the geosciences. The Norwegian Research School in Climate Dynamics, ResClim, and the international summer school Advanced Climate Dynamics Courses (ACDC) are examples of excellent research schools provided in the geosciences.
Tore Furevik, director of the Bjerknes Centre, believes the summer schools have put Bergen on the map as an important centre for international climate research.
“The ResClim funding expires next year, which makes it even more important that the Research Council of Norway now has decided to support CHESS. This will ensure that our students have a new option after 2016. Now new research environments will be included in this excellent network,” says Furevik.
He notes that ResClim, which has been attended by more than one hundred PhD candidates, has played an important role in educating the climate researchers of the future.
Associate Professor Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu at UiB’s Department of Earth Science, also believes that CHESS can build on the excellent results of ResClim and ACDC.
“CHESS will further strengthen climate education for scholars in Norway and connect Norwegian PhD candidates to a broad international network in fields related to climate research, meteorology, oceanography, hydrology, and glaciology,” he says.