Second Meeting of the Research Board (RB-2)
The Research Board held its second meeting virtually on 28 and 29 January 2021, which provided an important opportunity to reflect on many issues, including lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, implementation of the WMO Reform, and progress since the April 2020 meeting. The Chair of the Research Board, Prof. Celeste SAULO introduced the new Vice-Chair, Prof. Deon Terblanche. The agenda included an invited talk by Prof Daya REDDY, President of the International Science Council as well as discussions regarding Research Board membership and substructures, engagement with the research programmes, updates from task teams, identification of research priorities in hydrology, development of concept notes, collaboration with other WMO bodies and planning for an open science conference and other future activities. Outcomes from the meeting include the following decisions:
(1) to approve the report of the first Research Board meeting;
(2) to approve the automatic workflow in the database, the offline process for the selection of the members of the substructures;
(3) to approve the Terms of Reference of the GAW programme and the WWRP;
(4) to approve the Terms of Reference of the representatives of the constituent bodies on the Research Board;
(5) to provide a training on the use of the Research Expert Database, if needed;
(6) to approve the second phase of the Aviation Research Demonstration Project as proposed in collaboration with SERCOM;
(7) to approve extending the mandate of the Task Team on AI/Exascale computing until Cg-19 and the Task Team on COVID-19 until the end of 2021 in order to proceed with the new tasks and activities; and
(8) to develop a draft Research Strategy on Hydrology and a workplan in collaboration with UNESCO that includes specific activities through a series of solicitations/consultations throughout 2021.