EMS Technology Achievement Award

The European Meteorological Society (EMS) seeks to recognise achievements that are influential on developments of technologies and technical solutions in meteorology and related areas, have advanced the methods and technologies of environmental observing and forecasting systems and demonstrated the potential to impact on the field at the European scale. Thus the EMS launched The EMS Technology Achievement Award in 2015.

  • The EMS Technology Achievement Award is normally awarded annually. A call for nominations will be issued in autumn each year and the award presented at the EMS Annual Meeting in the following year.
  • The Award is given in the form of a certificate.
  • The requirements and procedures for the award include the possibility of self-nomination.

A short presentation about the TAA

The EMS Technology Achievement Award 2023

The EMS Technology Achievement Award 2023 is presented to Yr  for the ways it makes weather information available to a wide audience worldwide: it stands out for the nowcast function using citizen science data in the Nordic region and its sky view option which displays the future weather in a very transparent way.

The award presentation will take place on Monday 4 September 2023 at 4pm at the EMS Annual Meeting in Bratislava. The stream of the session is publicly free to watch.

Terms of reference

1. Objective of the award

The EMS Technology Achievement Award is granted to individuals or corporations in recognition of technological contributions associated with instrumentation and methodologies used in meteorology and related sciences (e.g. oceanography, atmospheric chemistry and hydrology) and their applications that have the potential for Europe-wide impact.
Such developments could include

  • Instrumentation,
  • Observing systems and measurements,
  • Data management and ICT Infrastructure: data acquisition, data handling, data analysis techniques, and algorithms,
  • Information systems along with technological developments underpinning forecasting methods and validation/verification techniques.

2. The Award

The EMS Technology Achievement Award is awarded in the form of a certificate presented to the recipient during the award ceremony of the EMS Annual Meeting.
Depending on the type of nominations received, two Awards may be given: One Award for small organisations/projects; this is understood normally to be a group of up to 5 people. And one Award for large projects; this is understood to normally be a project of an institute, company, any other organisation or a project consortium.

3. Eligibility and nomination for the award

The award is granted to individuals, groups of individuals or organisations. Organisations are understood in a broad sense, including companies, institutions, associations, international organisations and projects.
EMS Member Societies and EMS Associate Members and their respective members or staff are eligible to make nominations for the EMS Technology Achievement Award.
Individuals, groups of individuals or organisations are also eligible to submit a self-nomination for the EMS Technology Achievement Award, under the same conditions, explained in paragraph 4.

4. Nominations

A call for nominations is issued each year in autumn, with a submission deadline in January.

Submission is encouraged in two stages: Nominators are invited to submit an outline of the proposal until a deadline in late autumn. The outline proposal should present the key achievements in the form of an abstract (max 1 A4 page). The Selection Committee will provide a preliminary assessment of the proposal and guidance for the full submission to the nominators within 6 weeks. This stage is optional and not a pre-requisite for the submission of the full proposal.

In order to make a nomination the following documents need to be submitted:

A Description of key achievements, explaining the new aspects and innovation of an achievement, as well as any principle practical achievement and experiences with the technological solution.
Any principle papers, posters, books, patents related to the achievement or other information which explains the exclusivity of the technological solution should also be included.

Curriculum vitae and/or profile of the organisation, corporate body or individual, not more than three A4 pages:

  • The Curriculum vitae (in case of an individual) should contain the background of the Nominee and an overview of career, publications and other relevant information.
  • The profile (in case of an organisation or corporate body) should contain background information about the corporate body as well as background information about the persons or teams involved.

Two supporting letters up to two A4 pages. More than three letters of support will not be considered.

A Citation of 25 words or less.

All documents and communications must be in English. Documents must be provided digitally in pdf format.

5. The selection process

A Selection Committee established by the EMS Council will of evaluate the nominations and make a recommendation to the EMS Council. The final selection of awardees is the task of the EMS Council.

Non-selected nominations will be forwarded once to be considered again for the award in the following year. The documentation provided may be updated for the next call for proposals.

6. Presentation of the Award

Following the decision of the EMS Council, the winning organisation, corporate body or individual will be informed in due time in order to take part at the awards ceremony at the EMS Annual Meeting. The name of the winner will be made public to the media and in EMS publications.

Previous Awardees