Developing Skills for Future Modelling and Innovation: The Transatlantic Data Science Academy

The future development and application of atmospheric science requires engaging and sustainable career pathways for a new generation of research software engineers, data assimilation experts, data engineers and data scientists. There is still work to improve these career pathways, so that they become inspiring and accessible to the widest group of people. This can be done by identifying barriers related to equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as gaps in learning and development opportunities, through the provision of new courses, mentoring, joint projects and tools for collaboration.

The UK Met Office and NOAA have established a Transatlantic Data Science Academy to fill these gaps and address these barriers. In July 2023, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced a $7 million funding opportunity to establish a new multi-university Data Assimilation Consortium that will improve weather predictions. At the same time, the Met Office announced a call for its Met Office Academic Partnership to scope out and develop the concept of an Academy, as part of a wider $3 million investment by UK government over 2 years. The aims is to build an Academy which supports student training and exchanges of experts through courses and opportunities to learn earth observation sector skills, such as data processing and data analysis. Collaborative tools and a sandpit area will support student training, and encourage hands-on development and research.

Here, we will provide an overview of the current state of development of the Academy, including results of some initial pilot projects, results of the scoping work of the Academy, and plans for the Academy in the coming years. The 104^th meeting of the AMS will provide an excellent time to take stock of our initial findings and plans and engage those interested in building the community modelers and innovators of the future.