Ongoing projects of the Weather and Climate Change Impact Research
ACCC (Atmosphere and Climate Competence Centre, 2021–2028). The project supports Finland, the EU, and ultimately the world in achieving the Paris climate targets and adapting to climate change with sustainable, cost-effective, and research-based solutions. We study ways to mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration in forests and soils. We also explore air quality and its link to climate and health aiming for clean air. Active collaboration between interdisciplinary research and public and private sector actors enables effective mitigation and adaptation measures at the national and international level. It also supports the implementation of climate policy. Collaboration with companies generates new practical solutions such as atmospheric measurement instruments, climate and air quality analysis and monitoring services, and improved verification solutions linking multi-level data. Partners: Helsinki University (coordinator), FMI, University of Eastern Finland, and Tampere University. Funding: Research Council of Finland. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.
ALBATROS (Advanced systems and solutions for better practices against hazards in the aviation system, 2022–2026). The project aims to increase the safety and preparedness of aviation to face especially the following factors and risks related to them: new technologies (hydrogen- and electric-powered aircraft), weather (climate change and extreme weather events), increased traffic, and cyber security. FMI’s contribution ends in 9/2025. Partners: NLR – Netherlands Aerospace Centre (coordinator), FMI, the University of Oulu, and several European partners. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Ilari Lehtonen.
Carbon Busters (2023–5/2025). The project focuses on expert networks, innovations, and the development of collaboration. The learning environment, Carbon Garage, developed in the project, is a meeting place for the needs and supply of knowledge of small- and medium-sized companies, learners, learning institutions, research institutions, and municipal operators. FMI brings to the project expertise on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, climate modelling, and microclimatic measurements. Partners: Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (coordinator), FMI, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. Funding: co-funded by the European union: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Contact: Eeva Kuntsi-Reunanen.
CLIMAAX (CLIMAte risk and vulnerability Assessment framework and toolboX, 2023–2026) project develops guidelines and a toolbox (a collection of software tools and data) to help regions all across the EU to perform climate risk analysis in a more standardised manner. Partners: Deltares (coordinator), FMI, the Ministry of the Interior Finland, Emergency Services Academy Finland, and several European partners. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Thomas Kühn.
CLIMFOCI (The perfect storm - unraveling the climatic and ecological factors driving current and future occurrence of TBEV foci across scales, 2025–2029). The aim of this multidisciplinary project is to investigate the climatic and ecological drivers of TBEV (tick-borne encephalitis virus) establishment and circulation in boreal environment. The results of the project and their dissemination will help prevent the spread of TBEV to humans. Partners: In addition to FMI (coordinator), Natural Resources Institute Finland, the University of Finland, and the University of Helsinki. Funding: Research Council of Finland. Contact: Juha Aalto.
CREXDATA (CRitical action planning over EXtreme-Scale DATA, 2023–2025). The vision of the project is to develop a generic platform for real-time critical situation management including flexible action planning and agile decision making over streaming data of extreme scale and complexity. CREXDATA develops the algorithmic apparatus, software architectures and tools for federated predictive analytics and forecasting under uncertainty. Partners: 14 European partners, including FMI and Technical University of Crete (coordinator). Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Ilona Láng-Ritter.
GUVIR (Global UV radiation variability, trends and impact on the seasonality of viral infections, 2025–2029). The project aims to elaborate on the role of solar UVR on the seasonality of viral infections and the intensity of waves of epidemics. Molecular level studies will be conducted in laboratory and field experiments to study the effects of UVR on the genetic stability and infectivity of viruses. Epidemiological modeling will be used to study UVR impacts on the onset and intensity of epidemics. Global UVR trends will be calculated from biologically weighted satellite UVR data. Partners: FMI (coordinator), University of Helsinki. Funding: Research Council of Finland. Contacts: Liisa Lakkala (Atmospheric Radiation), Lisa Haga.
MAGICA(MAximising the synergy of European research Governance and Innovation for Climate Action, 2022–2026). The project accelerates the development and transfer of knowledge from science to policy and practice within the European Research Area (ERA). It supports innovation to inform and support policy making and climate actions via a better coordination of on-going and future initiatives and a more efficient use of resources. It establishes an operational framework that enhances the alignment and coordination of climate change research programmes across the ERA, putting the highest quality, cutting-edge climate science into the hands of the decision-makers. Partners: Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) (coordinator), FMI, and several other European partners. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Heikki Tuomenvirta.
PIISA (Piloting Innovative Insurance Solutions for Adaptation, 2023–2026). The project brings together 12 European organisations to co-develop climate resilient insurance portfolios and solutions for sharing climate-related risk and losses data. The focal sectors benefiting from the project are agriculture, forestry, cities and citizens’ well-being. Project tackles multiple climate enhanced hazards such as floods, droughts, forest fires, biotic risks, and storms. Project is coordinated by FMI. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.
PLOTO (Improving the Resilience of Inland Waterways against Climate Change, 2022–2026). The project aims at increasing the resilience of the Inland WaterWays (IWW) infrastructures and the connected land infrastructures, thus ensuring reliable network availability under unfavourable conditions, such as extreme weather, accidents and other kinds of hazards. Partners: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordinator), FMI, and several European organisations. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Ilari Lehtonen.
RESICLIM (Resilience of Arctic terrestrial ecosystems under bioclimatic change, 2021-2025). The project explores recent changes in Arctic ecosystems and the climatic and local factors behind them. It utilizes state-of-the-art climate data and long-term high-resolution satellite image time series to examine local ecosystem changes and their causes. The project aims to produce maps of both Arctic change and ecosystem resilience i.e. the capacity of ecosystems to resist and recover from change. The results and methods of the research will support decision-making and conservation efforts in Arctic regions. Partners: University of Helsinki (coordinator) and FMI. Funding: Research Council of Finland. Contact: Juha Aalto.
SLUPSU/SMARTLAND (Smart land use policy for sustainable urbanization, 2019–2025). The project helps to identify and develop effective land-use policies focusing on alleviating the following urban problems: 1) housing availability and affordability, 2) socioeconomic segregation of neighborhoods, and 3) carbon emission and energy use in cities. Land use policies are defined broadly, the instrument studied within the project are various, ranging from more traditional command and control policies to economic instruments (incentives structures) and information-based instruments. The research will identify existing and completely novel policies that effectively steer sustainable urbanisation considering all the three above-mentioned challenges and their interconnectedness. The project will also study and further develop these policies and their implementation in co-operation with the key stakeholders in the field of land use planning and development. Also, research-based long-term scenarios are utilised in co-creating processes. Partners: Aalto university (coordinator), FMI, University of Turku and University of Helsinki. Funding: The Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland. Contact: Reija Ruuhela.
TAPSI (Localised climate service for Finland, 2023–2025). The project aims to develop accurate climate information for Finland to support climate change adaptation. The project examines extreme weather events, such as hot weather, heavy precipitation, and slippery conditions in winter. It aims to produce model-based and high-resolution climate data for the whole of Finland. In addition, the project will develop urban measurement networks and visualize the information of the conditions near real-time. The measurements can be used to downscale climate model simulations at the urban level. Partners: FMI. Funding: LähiTapiola. Contact: Hilppa Gregow.
Trees4Adapt (Addressing complex risks from climate change and biodiversity loss across systems and scales: Leveraging the potential of tree-based solutions for adaptation in Europe, 2025–2029). The project will improve empirical understanding of interdependencies of climate change and biodiversity loss and how these shape complex environmental risks. The project will develop evidence-based tools and solutions – focusing on tree-based solutions – that enhance climate resilience while simultaneously supporting biodiversity. FMI leads a task focusing on understanding microclimate dynamics and other abiotic factors as a function of tree diversity and forest composition. Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (coordinator), FMI & several international research organisations and universities. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Juha Aalto.
VALORADA (Validated local risk actionable data for adaptation, 2023–2026). The project aims to empower European regions and cities to steer societal transformation towards sustainable and climate-resilient development. Project reaches for the untapped potential of existing data in adapting to climate change. This is done by integrating datasets that merge local knowledge with climate and non-climate datasets through co-developed data manipulation tools and climate data. Partners: HEREON (coordinator), FMI, HCU, ECMWF, Climate-KIC, EARSC, Aerospace valley, TerraNIS, G.A.C, CMCC, Terra Spatium SA, University of Thessaloniki, TAKT-IKI, Asitis. Funding: EU Horizon Europe. Contact: Eeva Kuntsi-Reunanen.
WIND-IMPACT (Insights into Future Extreme Windstorms: Dynamics and Impacts, 2025–2029). In this project we investigate how climate change affects the characteristics of windstorms in northern Europe by using projections from a digital twin of Earth at unprecedented kilometre-scale resolution. We also develop machine learning based models to predict the impact of these storms on the electrical grid and apply these tools to quantify the future risks of windstorms to the electricity network. Additionally, we estimate the future socio-economic losses from windstorms and explore the potential of economic mechanisms to mitigate their impacts. Partners: University of Helsinki (coordinator) and FMI. Funding: Research Council of Finland. Contact: Antti Mäkelä.
Participation to international consulting
Experts of Weather and Climate Change Impact Research also participate in international consulting