C2SM Task Assignment
C2SM Executive Office gives takes tasks from C2SM member groups, third-party projects, and C2SM Community projects.
The terms and modalities, and the procedure to receive our support are described below.
- One to two months before the annual Working Group Day, which will typically take place in the beginning of a year, C2SM issues an email requesting task proposals from the groups;
- Groups should send their task proposals back via email to containing a description and objectives of the tasks, an estimate of the time needed, and indicating a contact person. If groups request several tasks, they should order them according to their priority, and also describe the benefit for C2SM. Tasks with larger benefit for several C2SM groups may be given priority in the priorization procedure. Groups can also jointly suggest tasks with several groups;
- The core team will evaluate the suggestions and may feedback/raise questions/re-iterate the proposals with the groups;
- Before the Working Group Day, the core team will prioritize and merge the proposals. Time will be reserved for submitted third-party and community project proposals assuming they will be funded. For details, see respective sections;
- The merged task lists will be provided to the groups before the WG Day for review;
- The task lists will be discussed/modified and agreed upon at the WG Day joint meeting.
As outlined in C2SM's business plan for 2021-25, the Executive Office also considerably relies on funding by third-party projects. Thus, we are happy to contribute to our members' research projects (e.g., SNF, EU, ETH) in our expert areas.
Third-party projects with benefit for several C2SM groups
These may by projects by individual C2SM members as PI potentially together with other Co-PIS from the community which fund individual tasks by core team programmers. The projects will be supported especially if the results will have a benefit for several C2SM groups.
Third-party projects with benefit for the PI only
A member can also suggest a task/tasks to be funded from their project, but for which the benefit is limited to their group. These suggestions will be realised if there is capacity from C2SM. However, they have a lower priority versus those projects with a larger benefit for the community.
Task portfolio
The contributions by the core team consist of technical model development and support tasks to a large extent. Individual tasks may also consist of setting up and hosting a project website, or organising individual workshops or seminar series.
Procedure for proposing involvement in a third-party project
- The project PI contacts C2SM's already in the proposal stage by sending a written proposal analogous to the task proposals for tasks from groups;
- The ED together with an assigned responsible core team staff, feedbacks to the PI and potentially re-iterates the proposal;
- If the proposal fufils the above conditions, C2SM will assume it will be accepted and reserve time for its execution in the following year;
- We will reserve approximately 3-7 person months (0.3-0.6 FTEs) on tasks from third-party projects per year.
Tasks are also taken from C2SM Community projects.
These are large, perennial, and joint research and/or development projects of at least three C2SM groups and two different partner institutions and a substantial financial volume. Their overarching goal supports the implementation of one or more of the four pillars of C2SM. The project creates results that an individual group alone would not have been able to create. Their results benefit a large majority of C2SM members. These projects are significantly supported by C2SM core funding in terms of inkind commitment of core staff.
Procedure for task assignment from Community projects
- The C2SM Steering Committee discusses and recommends C2SM's involvement in a Community project already in the proposal stage. This includes a suggestion on the approximate amount of FTEs to be reserved for the project;
- The ED passes the information on to the core team, and together with responsible programmers evaluates the feasibility of the plans considering all other ongoing activities and plans;
- The ED passes the information back to the Steering Committee;
- The Steering Committee approves the plans and time allotted for the Community project;
- The C2SM core team reserves the FTEs assuming the project will be funded;
- Not later than at the project start, the project Steering Group develops and phrases how they envision the core team's involvement and sets up specific tasks. The tasks are submitted as a proposal to the C2SM ED and involved programmers;
- The ED and the responsible programmer(s) evaluate the tasks, feedback/clarify, and finally pass their suggestion on to the C2SM SC;
- The task list is approved by the SC;
- The task assignment from Community projects is repeated regularly, at a half-annual or annual interval, ideally 1-2 months before the annual Working Group Day.
Current projects:
- EXCLAIM
- Planned: Next generation Swiss climate scenarios CH202X