[Photo] Professor PARK Wonsun of the IBS Center for Climate Physics

A team led by Professor PARK Wonsun of the Center for Climate Physics within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has been officially awarded funding through Horizon Europe, the EU’s largest-ever multilateral research initiative.

As part of the EU Framework Programme (FP), launched in 1984, Horizon Europe is a seven-year program (2021–2027) with a total budget of €95.5 billion, making it the world’s largest research and innovation funding scheme. In 2025, South Korea became the first Asian country to join Horizon Europe as an associated country, marking a significant step in strengthening its role within the global science and technology network. South Korea currently participates in Pillar II, which focuses on addressing global challenges and enhancing industrial competitiveness.

The newly selected project falls under Cluster 5 (Climate, Energy and Mobility) within Pillar II. The project aims to investigate global and regional climate extremes and their impacts by refining regional detail within ocean models. The international consortium is led by the UK Met Office and includes 13 leading research institutions from 12 countries, among them GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The consortium will receive a total of €6.4 million over four years beginning later this year.

Professor Park’s team plans to develop a high-efficiency, high-resolution ocean model based on NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean), one of Europe’s leading ocean modeling systems. The approach will selectively enhance spatial resolution in targeted ocean regions while maintaining lower computational costs at the global scale. This strategy is designed to improve the prediction of regional climate extremes and interactions within the Earth system without the prohibitive costs of uniformly ultra-high-resolution global simulations. The project is expected to strengthen next-generation ocean and climate modeling capabilities, contributing to improved responses to climate change.

Professor PARK stated, “Through this collaborative research, we aim to provide detailed scientific information necessary for developing national climate adaptation strategies and to help define the next direction of climate model development in the emerging ocean–climate technology field. This project will also serve as an important opportunity to further deepen cooperation between Korea and Europe in climate modeling research.”

IBS Public Relations Team
William I. Suh