Data archival and documentation of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report of Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis
April 2021
1. Description of the needs
1.1 Context
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. In the same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC.
The IPCC reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. It does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters.
As an intergovernmental body, membership of the IPCC is open to all member countries of the United Nations (UN) and WMO. Currently 195 countries are Members of the IPCC. Governments participate in the review process and the plenary Sessions, where key decisions about the IPCC work programme are taken and reports accepted, adopted and approved. The IPCC Bureau Members, including the Chair, are also elected during the plenary Sessions.
Thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. Review is an essential part of the IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete assessment of current information. The IPCC aims to reflect a range of views and expertise.
As part of the Sixth IPCC Assessment Cycle (AR6), Working Group I (WGI) will assess the physical scientific knowledge basis of the climate system and climate change. The WGI Technical Support Unit (TSU), hosted by Université Paris-Saclay, provides scientific, technical and organizational support for the activities and products of WGI.
The approval session for the WGI report is scheduled for July 2021.
1.2 Need
We are seeking a contractor able to assist with the data archival and documentation for the forthcoming IPCC WGI report. This work will form an important contribution to the FAIR data initiative for the report, led by the WGI Technical Support Unit (TSU), which adopts best practice in data archival as established by the international FAIR framework (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
1.3 Constraints
- All documents are in English.
- Providers will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement and must respect the confidentiality of the drafts until released publicly in August 2021.
- The work is scheduled to start early May 2021 and to be finalized by the end of September 2021. The workload is estimated at 700 hours approx.
1.4 Skills required
- Expertise in the archival of scientific data including FAIR data principles.
- Experience working with physical climate science data, both observational and from climate model ensembles such as CMIP or CORDEX.
- Experience with a range of scientific data formats, including NetCDF and CSV.
- Ability to code.
1.5 Contacts
The scientific contact person for this project is:
Dr Robin Matthews
Senior Science Officer
WGI TSU
Robin.matthews@universite-paris-saclay.fr
The administrative contact person for this project is:
Clotilde Péan
Head of Operations
WGI TSU
Clotilde.pean@universite-paris-saclay.fr
2. Requirements
Candidates are asked to provide all the costs linked to the project based on the approx. workload indicated above.
The tender can be submitted in French or in English and will need to be sent via email to Clotilde.pean@universite-paris-saclay.fr by 25 April 2021.
Payment(s) will be made within 30 days of the invoice date.
The Contractor will be required to undertake the tasks as summarised below:
- Facilitate the archival of data for the figures from all report components (i.e. 13 chapters, the Summary for Policymakers and Technical Summary):
-conduct detailed quality control checks on the data files and metadata provided by data providers for archival;
-advise data providers as they prepare these files and information;
-transfer the finalized data and metadata to a long-term data archival facility.
- Ensure that the archived data is an accessible format, is logically-organized and is accompanied by complete and easy-to-understand metadata.
- Assist with code archival for the report as needed. The contractor will perform these duties under the supervision of the WGI TSU and in close collaboration with the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC), which is supporting the long-term archival of data from IPCC reports.
The contractor will perform these duties under the supervision of the WGI TSU and in close collaboration with the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC), which is supporting the long-term archival of data from IPCC reports.