Research and development services and related consultancy services

Tender description

As the Entrusted Entity for implementing the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) ECMWF will issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the operational delivery of the European-scale air quality component of CAMS. The production must be based upon a geographically distributed ensemble of between 8 and 10 individual models and a central processing function to deliver three streams: — on a daily basis, hourly analyses and forecasts up to + 96h. — with a delay of a few weeks (in order to maximise the number of observations) interim re-analyses will be produced daily with systems frozen in their configuration of January 1st every year; — with a delay of up to 2 years (due to the delay in getting fully validated observations), re-analyses will be processed with frozen systems, which are only updated every few years. All the individual assimilation and forecast systems must be mature, well-validated and operated by their main developers. This aspect is essential so that the operators can directly maintain a steady flow of changes to the numerical codes, in order to include new research developments, to make corrections reflecting findings from verification/validation, and to implement approved changes requested by users. Acquisition of data, monitoring of the production, verification of the outputs, data services and support to the users form the bulk of the activities. We expect that the successful bidder will bring together a group of organisations with proven operational capabilities and track record in air quality assimilation and forecasting. Duration of the framework agreement is 33 months. Expected starting date of the services is 1.10.2018.