As a partner to WMO, IAHS would like to draw your attention to the upcoming symposium:

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce the 14th Symposium on Meteorological Education and Training of the World Meteorological Organisation (SYMET-14). Since late 2019, the world has experienced dramatic and rapid shifts in our ways of living, interacting, and educating as we have all adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated changes to the delivery of meteorological, hydrological and climate training that might have happened over the next 5-15 years. But rapid change has been recognized as the new normal for much longer, and in many more ways than those resulting from the pandemic. Technological innovations and social evolution continue to change our lives and work, climate change has accelerated and demands action, professions are becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, research uncovers new opportunities each year, and globalization means that we all interact and rely on each other more than ever. These are reflected in our symposium theme “Education and Training in a time of rapid change”. The goals of the symposium are: 

•         Identify the key issues for international, regional, and national actions in future Education & Training

•         Apprise WMO RTC’s and training partners of the goals and status of the WMO programmes

•         Further the work of the WMO Global Campus initiative to aid Members in responding to needs for developing and delivering education and training

•         Recommend a collaborative platform for coordination of education and training activities between stakeholders

We hope that the symposium will be a timely opportunity for the community to come together to discuss how best to capitalise on the rapid innovations we are making in response to change. It will also give us the opportunity to discuss greater international collaboration to deliver the change in the scale and breadth of training for a changing role of meteorologists in a climate-resilient future. 

Our symposium will take place between the 22nd-25th November 2021, exclusively online. The symposium will have keynotes delivered by leading figures, working groups will address key challenges in meteorological education and training and the all participants will have the opportunity to present their own challenges and responses to rapid change through virtual poster sessions. The plenary sessions will have simultaneous interpretation in the six WMO official languages to support communication. At the end of the symposium, we aim to produce a meeting statement with a series of actions aimed at driving forward the agenda of creating greater access to meteorological education and training worldwide. 

The meeting website will be made available in October.

Please share this first announcement with your colleagues and look for our calls for registration and poster submissions in late September. Note that there will be no registration fee.

Best regards,

On behalf of

Andrew Charlton-Perez (University of Reading) and Anna Timofeeva (Russian State Hydrometeorological University), SYMET-14 co-chairs.

Luciane Veeck
Education and Training Support Officer
Email: [email protected] 
Education and Training Office, Member Services and Development Department
World Meteorological Organization
Address: 7bis, Avenue de la Paix. Case postale 2300, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland