ECMWF implements Africa Regional Centres of Excellence (ArcX) on Climate Change Resilience on behalf of the European Commission’s DG INTPA.
The programme runs for four years from January 2026 in partnership with the Joint Research Council and complements other Regional Centres of Excellence in Africa, focused on Agro-ecology, Water, Ocean, Biodiversity & forest.
ArcX activities focus on science, technology and innovation and aim to establish a bridge with the EU's Digital Agenda, including Destination Earth and the use of AI/ML techniques, as well as advances in climate change services, including the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and ClimSA. A selection of self-contained, portable "forecast-in-a-box” pilots will be co-developed by European and African partners, including the meteorological communities and the private sector. These will be tested at sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales through regional pilots and sector- and science-oriented demo cases.
There is a strong focus on training and knowledge transfer, as well as dedicated innovation challenges, linked to ECMWF’s Code for Earth and AI Weather Quest. ArcX Climate Change Resilience builds on investments in digital tools and AI/ML by ECMWF and its Member States and the European Commission through DestinE. The plans support the UN EW4All initiative and the WMO’s plans for the Climate Digital Innovation Hub and the Action Plan on Artificial Intelligence.
ArcX Climate Change Resilience is closely connected to ECMWF’s activities on Strengthening Early Warning in Africa (SEWA), including AI/ML activities to deploy the AIFS and other global models in an African context in support of early warnings.