Markus Repnik will receive the EMS Silver Medal 2026

The EMS is delighted to announce that the EMS Council has selected Markus Repnik, Austria, to receive the EMS Silver Medal 2026.

Markus Repnik receives the EMS Silver Medal for his outstanding leadership and impact on the European meteorological community through the creation of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), enhancing Europe’s role in sustaining global surface-based observations that are essential for modern weather prediction.

The Silver Medal ceremony, which includes a Silver Medal Lecture by the Laureate, will be held during the Annual Meeting of the EMS in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 6 – 11 September 2026.

Silver Medal Lecture
Innovating ways to support developing countries in closing their basic weather and climate data gaps

Markus Repnik said: “I am deeply honoured to receive this award, and I accept it with gratitude on behalf of the many inspiring colleagues who have been part of a fascinating journey. Together, we shaped a vision that led to the creation of a new United Nations fund: the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF). And we did not stop at the vision—we are bringing it to life every day. Through SOFF, we are redefining how support is provided to developing countries, enabling them to sustainably generate and internationally exchange essential weather and climate data, thereby strengthening forecast accuracy across the globe.”

Markus Repnik is widely recognised for his visionary leadership in creating and directing the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), an innovative UN climate fund from WMO that strengthens global meteorological observation networks, especially in developing countries. Through pioneering financing mechanisms and strong international partnerships, he has mobilised governments, development banks, and European meteorological institutions to close critical observation gaps. His work has enhanced global weather forecasting, climate services, and disaster preparedness, while reinforcing Europe’s scientific and strategic leadership. Markus Repnik has also played a key role in raising political and public awareness of the fundamental importance of meteorological observations. His efforts have created a lasting global framework ensuring sustainable observation infrastructure and long-term benefits for operational meteorology, research, and climate applications.

Service to the European Meteorological Community

The establishment of SOFF followed Markus’ vision of creating a sustainable long-term approach to support basic observation infrastructure and capacity of developing counties through articulated incentive mechanisms. It involves governments, governmental and inter-governmental agencies and the private sector to improve Earth observations beyond the typical framework of short-term, country focussed, development projects that too often do not have a long-lasting impact and in fact may even be counterproductive.

Although SOFF is a global initiative, its interventions with a focus on Least Developed Countries (LDC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) build on strong expertise and support from European National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), ECMWF, EUMETSAT and EUMETNET as well as financial support from European governments and financial institutions. This not only ensures that the most advanced available expertise is used to achieve the goals of the initiative, but that strong scientific and operational links are established between Europe, LDCs and SIDS. Currently, ten European NMHS provide peer advisory support to 45 SOFF beneficiary countries.

What stands out most from my interactions with Markus is his capacity to convert vision into action. He responded to the considerable challenges of this essential programme with solutions that are both realistic and ambitious. His vigorous guidance has helped align efforts across organisations, improving coherence and coordination of Europe’s collective meteorological capability. In every instance, he has shown himself not only as a leader, but as a collaborator who elevates the work of those around him.

These efforts have helped place systematic observations at the centre of adaptation, resilience and early warning discussions across Europe and internationally. Under his leadership, SOFF has communicated a compelling, public facing narrative on the global value of observations—culminating at COP30 where SOFF launched its 2025 Action Report, showcased country progress and announced new pledges, and where the Systematic Observation Impact Bond was introduced as an innovative finance instrument to accelerate data generation and sharing.

Although not a meteorologist himself, Markus has demonstrated a rare ability to bridge scientific,  operational, and political dimensions with ease. He fully committed to provide robust scientific evidence supporting the need to improve Earth observations in ways that are communicated effectively to non-scientists. It was thanks to Markus’ determination that a project was funded in collaboration with ECMWF to show the benefits to global weather forecast skills of investing in weather observations in LDCs and SIDS, by using a methodology based on the Ensemble of Data Assimilation (EDA) that had been pioneered by ECMWF to support investment in satellite observations, but that had never been tried before with  surface-based observations. To date, this study represents one of the strongest pieces of scientific evidence on the effects of  losing observational gaps.

About Markus Repnik

• Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF)
  since January 2022: Director, SOFF Secretariat hosted by the World Meteorological Organization
• World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
  9/2017 – 12/2021: Director, Development Partnerships
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
  9/2015 – 9/2017: Managing Director
• World Bank Group
  2000 – 9/2015: Manager Climate Policy and Climate Change Adviser

About the EMS Silver Medal

The EMS Silver Medal was established in 2008 to highlight distinguished contributions to the development of meteorology in Europe. The Award is presented annually.

Candidates for the EMS Silver Medal can be nominated by EMS Member Societies and Associate Members, EMS Committees and Project Teams through their respective chairs, and EMS Council representatives. Nominations of candidates identifying as female are accepted in uneven years, nominations of candidates identifying as male are accepted in even years, and nominations of non-binary candidates are accepted in any year. The EMS Awards Committee, consisting of senior members of meteorological institutions in Europe, makes recommendations to the EMS Council for a final decision.

Previous Silver Medallists included the late Karin Labitzke (2008), David Burridge (2010), the late Jean François Geleyn (2011), Michel Jarraud (2016), Julia Slingo (2017), Sarah Jones (2023), Sue Grimmond (2024) and Florence Rabier (2025).
For more details please visit: https://www.emetsoc.org/awards/award-category/ems-silver-medal/