Call for Contributions: km-Scale Global Modelling Summit 2026

Experts from the domains of high-performance computing, modeling, observations, and artificial intelligence are convening for the km-Scale Global Modelling Summit, to be held in Hamburg this summer. Taking place on 20–24 July 2026 at Bucerius Law School in the heart of the Hanseatic City, the Summit will take stock of the rapid and exciting scientific and technical developments associated with global km-scale Earth system models, and develop a research program to address the challenges and opportunities they pose: What has already been learned from the first generation of km-scale models? How can data handling be improved and model performance be accelerated? Which new programming paradigms are emerging to help exploit new computational technologies? How can km-scale enable a more accurate representation of processes in the Earth system that are currently still unresolved, and what scientific benefits can be expected from this? How can research support applications, such as digital twins, and how does this relate to the growing field of machine learning? 

Researchers and practitioners concerned with these or related questions are cordially invited to submit abstracts presenting recent results, emerging methodologies, and future perspectives in km-scale Earth system modeling. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2026.

About the program

The participants can look forward to hearing from a number of renowned speakers: Cathy Hohenegger (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany), Mike Pritchard (NVIDIA, U.S.A.), Thomas Schulthess (CSCS - Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Switzerland), Tiffany Shaw (The University of Chicago, U.S.A.), and Axel Timmermann (IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan National University, Republic of Korea) will deliver the keynote lectures, and a number of exciting invited speakers have also confirmed their attendance.

The summit will be preceded by a short hackathon starting on 16th July and thus also help prepare the technical and scientific program for the next km-Scale Global Hackathon of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), tentatively scheduled for the first half of 2027. The first WCRP km-Scale Global Hackathon took place in May 2025. The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), together with the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) and the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN, now Earth and Society Research Hub ESRAH) at the University of Hamburg hosted the Hamburg node of this event.

About the organizers

Hamburg is the ideal venue for the gathering: Together with the DKRZ and other partners, the MPI-M has been at the forefront of recent efforts to advance km-scale Earth system models. Among other things, MPI-M researchers have been involved in innovative EU projects such as nextGEMS, EERIE, and Destination Earth. The km-scale Global Modelling Summit is primarily organized by the members of the WarmWorld project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and coordinated at MPI-M.