Category: Events

Are you a PhD or an early-career researcher working on themes related to urban climate resilience in Africa? Do you want to strengthen your skills in co-creating climate services with state-of-the-art open geospatial data, digital tools, fellow experts and community members? You are warmly welcome to apply for our training workshop where you will gain experience on the co-creation of climate services in urban Africa to support local climate resilience.

Who can apply? PhD and early-career scientists affiliated with research performing institutes in Africa (higher-education institutes, technical training colleges and governmental organisations)
When? August 12–15, 2025
Where? Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Language: English
Participants: 15-20 researchers
Organised by: KADI project with Tanzania Resilience Academy 

Apply here: https://ty.fi/urban-climate-training. Deadline June 15th, 2025

Cost

No participation fee. Lunch is provided each day of the training workshop.

We provide a fixed number of mobility grants that are available for researchers from across Africa to attend. These grants are available to applicants who reside outside of Tanzania and will cover travel and accommodation costs.

Each candidate will be responsible for obtaining and covering the cost of a visa to Tanzania – if relevant.

Application and selection process

Apply here: https://ty.fi/urban-climate-training
Application deadline: 15.6.2025

Selection of candidates: 16-18.6.6.2025
Reply to all candidates about selection: 19.6.2025
Confirmation of participation by candidates: 23.6.2025
Invitation letters: 25.6.2025 

Applicants will be selected based on the relevance of their background in fields related to climate risk management, climate services, adaptation, or resilience, such as environmental science, geography, urban studies, meteorology, community development and related disciplines. Priority will be given to candidates with an understanding of geospatial or remote sensing data and data management, and who can demonstrate the benefits of this course in the advancement of their research.

What you can expect

The training workshop is a 4-day hands-on, collaborative workshop that brings together researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders across Africa and Europe to advance climate service development for local city contexts. The workshop combines transdisciplinary perspectives on the broad and topical issue of climate resilience, adaptation and services in cities, while strengthening knowledge-exchange and capacity growth among fellow researchers. 

Training workshop covers topics on

• • How to identify and analyse climate risks in complex urban environments at neighbourhood scale, together with local community members and knowledge-holders
  • Use of open geospatial data, low-cost tools, and participatory mapping approaches to understand urban heat and pollution
  • Practical skills in climate data analysis and visualisation using open-source tools
  • Approaches to co-design climate services tailored to local adaptation needs

Programme

Day 1: Orientation, theory and examples. Lectures and examples on climate risks, climate risk management and climate service needs in growing African cities with multi-hazard environments, tied to global trajectories and larger context of triple planetary crisis, followed by state-of-the-art data and methodologies for climate services, adaptation and action.

Day 2: Field visit. Visit to local communities coping with and adapting to changing urban climate. Field visit heads to neighbourhoods where KADI City pilot activities were carried out, linked with community discussions and local stories. 

Day 3: Hands-on practicals. Practical skills to analyse spatial data for understanding spatial and temporal patterns of climate hazards and risks in urban Africa. Relevant analysis methods for different climate stressors and data sources, collected with low-cost tools and participatory approaches, combined to other local and global datasets.

Day 4: Climate service co-creation simulation. Simulating a climate service co-creation process for African cities. Sensitising the concept of co-creation and systematically identifying elements that are crucial for city-scale climate service to be actionable and useful for local actors. 

The training program will be delivered by researchers and experts from KADI-project organisations across Africa and Europe, including Tanzania Resilience Academy with University of Turku (UTU), Ardhi University (ARU), Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB), Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University of Pretoria (UP), South African Observation Network (SAEON) and Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)

Apply now: https://ty.fi/urban-climate-training. deadline 15.6.2025 

For more information and inquiries about the workshop, contact: resilienceacademy@utu.fi 

April 27 – May 2, 2025
Vienna, Austria

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly brings together close to 20 000 geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience.

As in previous years, KADI project partners have sessions and presentations in the programme. We look forward to seeing you at the sessions below.

Sessions from the KADI community

Addressing research challenges of environmental change at the global scale via Research Infrastructures collaboration and alignment 

Co-organized by BG2/GI6
Convener: Michael Mirtl | Co-conveners: Werner Leo Kutsch, Beryl Morris

Orals | Mon, 28 Apr, 16:15–18:00 (CEST) Room -2.43
Posters on site | Attendance Mon, 28 Apr, 10:45–12:30 (CEST) | Display Mon, 28 Apr, 08:30–12:30 Hall X4

Presentations from KADI

Strengthening climate science for policy in Africa: Open Science, low-cost data collection, and multi-level policy integration 

Theresia Bilola, Emmanuel Salmon, Niina Kayhkö, Patricia Nying’uro, Nelly Babere, and Matthew Saunders
Fri, 02 May, 14:10–14:20 (CEST) Room -2.31

 

May 16, 2025
14:00-15:30 CEST (UTC +2)
webinar

The coastal ocean plays a major role in the global carbon cycle by taking up and emitting significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Obtaining good estimates of this flux is key to managing climate change and needs quality observations at high resolution. Recent developments mean that key international structures to coordinate these estimates are now coming into view.

In this webinar we will describe the structure of these, showcase an integrated ocean carbon observing system in Southern Africa, and present an example of how national scale efforts can be integrated together into continental scale networks. We will finish by describing a potential in person event which could be used to catalyse the development of an African scale surface carbon flux network.

 

Invited speakers:

• Richard Sanders, ICOS Ocean Thematic Centre (ICOS OTC)

Dr. Richard Sanders is the Director of ICOS Integrated Carbon Observation System, Ocean Thematic Centre (OTC) in NORCE (the Norwegian Research Centre), and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) in Bergen, Norway. The OTC leads, supports, and coordinates the ocean element of the ICOS network.

• Oksana Tarasova, World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Dr Oksana Tarasova is a Senior Scientific Officer in the Infrastructure Department in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). She is working on the development of the Global Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Infrastructure/ Global Greenhouse Gas Watch (G3W)

• Maciej Telszewski, International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP)

Dr. Maciej Telszewski is the Director of the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP). In this role he coordinates the highly diverse set of ocean carbon and biogeochemistry activities through extensive collaboration and dialogue with the scientific community via national and international organizations, scientific steering committees, scientific workshops, and expert meetings.

• Tommy Bornman, South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON)

Prof Thomas Bornman is the manager of the Coastal Node of the South African Environmental Observation Network and the Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure. He is a co-lead of the ocean pilot in the KADI project.

• Abdirahman Omar, Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE)

Dr. Abdirahman Omar is a senior researcher in chemical oceanography working on the marine carbon cycle at the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE). He is the Principal Investigator at the ICOS ocean station Sea-Cargo Express and co-leading the ocean pilot in the KADI project.

The registration for the webinar has now closed. To keep up to date with upcoming KADI activities, please sign up to the KADI newsletter.

KADI project strives to collaborate with different networks and projects on climate education. Because of that, we are excited to present a poster on knowledge exchange at the Climate University Annual Meeting to be held in Oulu 5.-7.11.2024.

Climate University is a network of Finnish higher education institutions and other stakeholders to foster climate and sustainability education in higher education and in the society. Climate University materials are open and free to study any time anywhere, the open-access materials of each course are available on the Climate University website (climateuniversity.fi)

The annual meeting of the Climate University network takes place in Oulu, Finland from 5th to 7th of November 2024. This year’s theme is climate education. KADI project manager, Theresia Bilola will present KADI at the project fair on Tuesday, 5th of November, as well as take part in the International Collaboration Action Group meeting on Wednesday the 6th. The goal is to share what KADI project has learned about climate education and discuss opportunities for future collaboration on educational material about climate in Africa.

Will you be at the meeting with your climate project and would like to connect? Reach out to Theresia on theresia.bilola (at) icos-ri.eu.

Download the poster by clicking on the image below

Clustering Session 3: Energy Systems and Modelling with Considerations to Water-Energy-Food Nexus
Date: October 10th
Time: 16:30 – 18:00 CET

KADI will participate in Session 3 of the  LEAP RE stakeholder forum with a presentation and a panel discussion. KADI’s participation will address the importance of the envisaged research infrastructure for energy systems modelling in Africa as well as the identified climate service needs. KADI has been connected to the LEAP RE network and is listed as a related project in the initiatives portfolio. KADI will also participate in in the cluster meetings for the projects to find collaboration point.

 

Building a climate cluster of EU projects in Africa

As part of its objective to support the climate component of the climate change and sustainable energy partnership (CCSE), KADI is facilitating the building of a climate cluster for projects and initiatives with similar topics funded by the European commission. The integration of KADI into the climate cluster serves to bolster the climate change initiatives within the CCSE partnership. The first step towards this was identifying and engaging with similar existing initiatives like  Focus-Africa,  Down2Earth, CONFER,  ALBTAROSS , SAFE4ALL, and GMES and Africa.

KADI plays a pivotal role in both adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change. The project coordination institution, ICOS ERIC, collects and transforms climate data to facilitate the implementation of technological and systemic solutions essential for managing and disseminating climate-related information effectively. Through KADI, a holistic knowledge framework for climate action is being fostered.

KADI is committed to supporting African countries in strategies to:

Integrate existing climate services by:

• Addressing priority areas and disseminating required climate information
• Identifying key stakeholder networks
• Engaging with funding initiatives
• Providing knowledge sharing and training
• Ensuring participatory engagement

Strengthen the links between climate service needs and:

• Policy formulation, policy cooperation and integration,
• Funding approaches
• Access to data and data management
• Expertise, knowledge, and experience sharing
• Combination of in situ and satellite observation

Strengthen seemingly ‘new’ aspects of climate science:

• Human experiences as a vital dimension of research infrastructures
• Impact pathways
• Development of “softer” scientific infrastructures, prioritising user spaces

 

10-12th September, 2024
Palais des Congrès
Versailles, France and online

The 6th ICOS Science Conference will be held 10th-12th September 2024 at the Versailles Palais des Congrès, France, and online.

This year’s theme is “From GHG observations through science to services”. The sessions chosen for this year’s conference reflect some highly topical issues as well as emerging trends within the fields of atmospheric, ecosystem, and ocean sciences. On top of reflecting ICOS’s three domains, the sessions incorporate broader themes such as climate services and science communication.

KADI project partners are chairing a session, as well as presenting numerous talks and posters. You can see the summary of the relevant presentations below. For the full conference programme check out the conference website.

 

Plenary Presentation

The African Greenhouse Gas Budget (2010-2019): a synthesis of the most recent data and models by Yolandi Ernst

Tuesday September 10 (10:45 – 12:00)

Oral Presentations

• 14:00-15:30 Tuesday, 10 September, 2024, Foyer Condé
  Session 3: RI Cooperation, co-location and other lessons learned

Gregor Feig et al.: Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network: A Landscape Scale Environmental Research Infrastructure in South Africa

• 16:00-17:30 Tuesday, 10 September, 2024, Foyer Condé
  Session 7: Exchange of reactive gases and aerosols

Tamryn Hamilton et al.: Temporal trends in high-resolution flux of Nitrogen-Dioxide (NO2) from a grazed African Savanna

• 10:45-12:30 Wednesday, 11 September, 2024, Foyer Condé
  Session 11: Science Communication

Faith Jumbi et al.: Participatory hydrological modelling for collective exploration of catchment management: promoting water stewardship across a multi-stakeholder platform

• 16:30-18:00 Thursday, 12 September, 2024, Foyer Condé
  Session 31: GHG obs in education, services and decision-making

Bernet, L. et al: Towards a pan-African Research Infrastructure for Atmospheric, Climate and Ecosystem Services: Three Decades of International Collaboration in Kenya.

Poster Presentations

• Poster session 1, 13:00-14:00 on Tuesday September 10

Verification of an earth system model CCAM using the ground-based measurements across South Africa.

Nolusindiso Ndara, Jessica Steinkopf, Amukelani Maluleke, Gregor Feig, Francois Engelbrecht

• Poster session 10, 13:30-14:30 on Wednesday September 11

Review of existing research infrastructures and design of a concept for pan African research infrastructure.
Nolusindiso Ndara, Marisa Gonzalez, Rebecca Garland, Gregor Feig

Two years measurements of carbon dioxide, energy and water vapor fluxes above a young oil palm plantation (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) established in southeast Benin, West Africa.
Ossénatou Mamadou, Renaud Koukoui, Armand Mariscal, Miriam Hounsinou, Jean-Martial Cohard, Christophe Peugeot

Session organised by KADI
“In situ data for policy support”

16:30 – 18:00 on Wednesday September 11

Convenors

Werner L Kutsch   (ICOS ERIC), Sanna Sorvari Sundet  (LUKE: Natural Resources Institute Finland),  Theresia Bilola   (ICOS ERIC),  Matt Saunders  (TCD), Marisa Gonzalez (UP).

Session Description 

A common denominator in the multiple environmental crises we are facing is that societal solutions strongly depend on the transfer of scientific knowledge into political and private enterprise as well as society at large. Science has, more than ever, become a key factor for our common future: the scale of these challenges requires large amounts of data, provided by large scale infrastructures. While this important role of science has become clearly evident, these crisis-driven developments have also changed the science itself (towards more applied science) and this transition will change science policy and resource distribution both towards and within the scientific system.

This session will explore the pathways from scientific observations to climate-derived and other environmental services. It welcomes insights on service co-design and service design labs. Examples of services could be: monitoring and verification of emission reduction as support of national inventories and NDCs, monitoring of Carbon Dioxide Removal activities, climate carbon feedback description, scenarios as part of national action plans and citizen science approaches supporting adaptation to climate change.

13-14th August 2024
Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD)
Nairobi, Kenya

The theme of RCMRD International Conference 2024 is “EARTH: Our only Home”. At the conference RCMRD and Partners provide you with an excellent opportunity to present your institution, innovations, share experiences, ideas, methods, technological advancements, and engage with key players from the broader industry from all over the globe.

The conference objectives are:

• To bring together various user domains within and beyond Earth Observations (EO) to understand the science and policy interaction
• To spur ideas on effective utilization of Earth observation information in decision making
• To enhance integration approaches for societal benefits

 

KADI at Panel session on Earth observation opportunities in Development

 

KADI project coordinator Dr. Theresia Bilola is on the panel at the session “Earth Observation utilization globally” (Thursday 15 August, 9:00-10:00).

Click here for more information about the event.

Are you in Nairobi for the conference and would like to meet up to learn more about KADI project and climate research infrastructure developments in Africa? Get in touch with Theresia on Theresia.bilola (at) icos-ri.eu

 

 

12-15 August 2024
Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD)
Nairobi, Kenya

AfriGEO is an initiative of the African Community in Group of Earth Observations (GEO) aimed at providing a coordination framework and platform for Africa’s participation in GEO. It aims to be a Pan African initiative to raise awareness and develop capacity in EO for governments, research organizations, academia, and the commercial sector; to provide a framework for strengthening partnerships and collaborations within Africa; to be a gateway into Africa for international partners, and to be a support mechanism for the implementation of GEO objectives and programmes in Africa in line with the GEO-Post 2025 Strategy.

The 8th AfriGEO Symposium focuses on AfriGEO’s priority topics:

• Agriculture, Food Security, Soil Moisture and Agricultural Outreach Support
• Biodiversity, Land degradation and Sustainable Forest Management
• Land Cover for Africa, Land administration, Sustainable Urban Development
• Blue economy and Water Resource Management
• Climate Services and Adaptation
• Health, air quality and Disaster Management
• Innovation, Data and Infrastructure

 

KADI project in Plenary Session “Data & Infrastructure: a roadmap to economic development”

 

KADI project is represented at the symposium by Dr. Theresia Bilola, project coordinator.  Theresia is taking part in the plenary session on data and infrastructure on Wednesday 14th August as one of the panelists.

The session focuses on existing data infrastructure, and linkage between data access, data utilization and economic development in Africa. The existing data infrastructure programmes that exist in the various institutions in Africa and the envisaged outcome will also be discussed in the session. In addition, challenges and opportunities in data utilization in Africa will be identified.

Click here for more information about the event.

Are you in Nairobi for the symposium and would like to meet up to learn more about KADI project and climate research infrastructure developments in Africa? Get in touch with Theresia on Theresia.bilola(at)icos-ri.eu

Online workshop: Validating African climate service and research infrastructure needs and challenges

July 1st (in English) 9am – 2pm SAST (UTC+2) – registration form

July 8th (in French) 9am – 2pm GMT (UTC+0) – registration form

KADI organises an online workshop in July 2024 to discuss, validate and improve findings from the project activities. We have invited actors who already have engaged with the project activities to take part in the workshop. However, if you would like to join the discussion, we warmly welcome you to the workshop!

Aim of the workshop

In the workshop, we would like to explore with all participants the climate service needs that emerge in different organisations and sectors that work on timely climate related challenges. The aim is to map climate infrastructure requirements or other climate inputs and information that could be supported by a Pan-African research infrastructure. We shall find ways to support various concrete climate service needs related to e.g. temperatures, air quality, CO2 circulation, and other climatic phenomena. In addition to this, we hope to connect with stakeholders who would be interested to continue working with the KADI team during the project, and also afterwards.

There will be two duplicate events, first one taking place on July 1st in English, and the second on July 8th in French.

 

9:00 – 9:45 am	Welcome and introductions An introduction to the project and the key topics of research infrastructures and climate services. Icebreakers using Flinga (https://flinga.fi) and Mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com) will get participants familiar with the online interactive tools.
9:45 – 10:45 am	Climate service needs This discussion aims to scope stakeholders’ current relationship to climate services, as well as their needs for additional climate services. Climate service pilots’ system maps as a methodology will also be validated with participants.
10:45 – 11:00 am	Break
11:00 – 12:00 pm	Critical research infrastructure elements This discussion aims to validate our work regarding research infrastructure elements and scoping the stakeholders’ experiences with the elements.
12:00 – 12:15 pm	Break
12:15 – 13:00 pm	Stakeholder champions and closing remarks This discussion aims to summarise the workshop discussion and findings. We will facilitate a way for the participants to show their interest in continuing communication with the KADI teams now and in the future as a stakeholder champion.

 

Would you like to take part in the workshop? You are warmly welcome to register via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/foiQqBYA4RP6AzvMA (in English) and https://forms.gle/otGU7ozArZPT69Az9 (in French).