The 12th Annual Workshop of the Climate Science for Service Partnership China (CSSP-China) was successfully held from October 20 to 22 at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Branch of the World Meteorological Centre (Beijing) in Guangzhou. The Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) co-organized the event as a core founder, alongside the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the UK Met Office.

The workshop gathered over 140 participants, including leading scientists, project managers, and diplomats from both China and the UK, underscoring the partnership's vitality and its role as a flagship for long-term international scientific cooperation.

Participants of the 12th Annual CSSP-China Workshop in Guangzhou.

In his opening address, Prof. Zhou Tianjun, Deputy Director of IAP, emphasized the institute's pivotal role within the partnership's three joint working groups. He highlighted IAP's cutting-edge research on mid-to-high-latitude climate teleconnections, changes in precipitation responses to ENSO, and the application of Artificial Intelligence in predicting extreme weather. Prof. Zhou called for enhanced collaboration across the working groups to address emerging climate challenges, such as the characteristics of the extreme flooding in North China in 2025. "Through co-design, co-production, and co-delivery, we can accelerate the translation of research into actionable climate services, thereby strengthening the scientific support for national disaster prevention and mitigation efforts," he stated.

Prof. Rowan Sutton, Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre, celebrated the project's extensive legacy, noting that CSSP-China has yielded over 600 collaborative papers with more than 15,000 citations and hundreds of thousands of downloads. He also highlighted that the research has informed over 314 public policy documents and engaged more than 200 researchers from over 20 institutions, with early-career scientists making up a significant portion.

The CSSP Framework sketched by Jane Strachan from UK Met Office.

The three-day workshop, themed "Tackling Climate Change and Building a Partnership for a Prosperous Society," served as a dynamic platform for scientific exchange, attracting over 100 experts from prestigious UK institutions like the Met Office, the University of Reading, and the University of Leeds, as well as from IAP, CMA, and leading domestic universities including Nanjing University, Fudan University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The agenda covered critical areas such as climate services for agriculture, energy, and urban resilience; extreme events; synoptic-scale phenomena over East Asia; readiness for CMIP7; and the application of AI/Machine Learning in climate science.

The program included 44 oral presentations and 53 poster displays. A dedicated "pop-up" session for poster presenters fostered dynamic and engaging discussions.

In a move to foster the next generation of climate scientists, the workshop presented three special awards. IAP researchers were honored with two of them:

• Dr. Wang Ya received the "Outstanding Early Career Contribution" award.
• Dr. Pang Bo (and team) was recognized for "Best Collaborative Effort."

The newly formed, tripartite Science Review Panel (SRP), chaired by Prof. Amanda Maycock from the University of Leeds and including Academician Zhang Renhe from Fudan University (nominated by IAP), participated fully in the workshop to provide strategic assessment and guidance for the project's future direction.

The 13th annual workshop is scheduled to be held in the UK in 2026.