Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

As the planet continues to warm due to human actions an accompanying socioeconomic transition is underway. As part of this transition, climate science is poised to become one of the central pillars of the global economy. In the Canadian context this is expressed in Canada's 2050 Net-Zero Plan, and in a multitude of private sector planning efforts. While the transition to a warmer climate and a net-zero economy will present economic opportunities, many manifestations of global heating are negative and include extreme and flash floods, stronger hurricane remnants, and longer lasting heat waves. These will challenge Canada's physical and social infrastructure at a time in which the Canadian workforce is experiencing massive generational turnover. To face threats and take advantage of opportunities Canada will require a considerable number of well-trained highly qualified personnel. Climate science is rooted in mathematical, physical and computing sciences, and the need for modernized training is particularly acute in these areas. Recent well-publicized successes in areas like artificial intelligence offer hope that transformative methods in quantitative climate science may soon follow, and well-trained trainees can contribute to traditional areas (prediction, computer simulation, and analysis of extreme events) as well as developing areas (net zero agriculture, climate risk assessment, data-centric and AI-based prediction and sustainable finance). The goal of the proposed research training program is to foster deep, long-term, cross-sector collaborations (i.e. academia, government and industry) in climate science that are rooted in quantitative tools and to provide a pipeline of trainees for these sectors to access. To meet this goal we propose a training program that partners four leading academic institutions (University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and McGill University), with participants in six different academic departments. The proposed training program will provide value added to existing University programs, and fill gaps in terms of modern ideas and methods that existing programs either miss, or respond slowly to.