
RELIVE THE 2019 EDITION
Making climate services a reality in Europe is a two-day conference that brings together climate researchers, policy-makers and industry experts as well as city and regional actors to showcase how climate data can serve both cities, regions, and businesses. The conference focuses on climate services.
We host presentations by climate services that mean business, an ice-breaking network event in our climate services marketplace, and a site visit to a sustainable hub.
Presentations
Our conference brochure overview gives a good overview of science-based climate services in Europe.
Keynotes
Mobility
Future cities
Tourism
Copernicus Climate Change Service
Climate Change: Adaptation and Climate Services An R&I Perspective
Supporting regional climate adaptation policy
Making Climate services a reality in Europe
A service to support climate-resilient bicycle traffic planning and design
Active Mobility and Health: is urban cycling healthy or not?
GERICS adaptation toolkit for cities concept and application case studies
Tools for Climate-Smart Future Cities
How the cities can exploit the service
The market for climate services in the tourism sector: Results from an Austrian case study
Sectoral Case: Cultural Heritage climate changes and Roma historical sites
Climate services for the Zoo of Antwerp
From the forecast to the decision: C3S & Prosnow, 2 examples of Climate Services
Energy
Agriculture
Water
Health
Water plan Antwerp: Towards a water-sensitive city
Urban Flood Hazard Analysis
Beyond adaptation: Emergency planning in times of climate change
PROgramme
The conference kicks off on 13 November with registration and lunch at the market place closely followed by the opening address. Parallel discussion sessions and panel interviews on Water, Energy, Future cities and Tourism follow on the agenda.
Day 2 of the conference continues with a new round of thematic sessions on Mobility, Agriculture, Health and Disaster risk reduction.
Meet the Speakers
After a career in the private environmental services sector, Stijn worked for 7 years at the European Commission DG RTD and Research Executive Agency within the Climate and Environmental Risks and the Space Research programmes. Stijn joined ECMWF in 2015 as part of the Copernicus management team where he contributed to the initiation of the operational phase of the Copernicus Climate Change and Copernicus Atmosphere Composition activities as entrusted to ECMWF by the European Commission. As of November 2019, Stijn will develop the new User Engagement capacity for the Copernicus services at ECMWF.
Head of Copernicus Contract Management Section
Stijn Vermoote
Hanane Taidi joined IFIA (The International Federation of Inspection Agencies) as Director General in July 2016. IFIA has since then merged with CEOC International, forming a new entity called TIC Council. Hanane Taidi was appointed Director General of the TIC Council in June 2019. In this role, Ms Taidi represents the Testing, Inspection and Certification Industry, a sector that provides independent conformity assessment around the world with a combined revenue of over €30 billion euros and over 400,000 employees.
Director General of the TIC Council
Hanane Taidi
Dirk Fransaer is Managing Director of VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, the largest research institute in Belgium in the field of sustainability and cleantech. VITO counts more than 850 staff members with an available budget of more than EUR 185 million. Dirk Fransaer is also president of the board of directors of LIBOVITO (a 100 % daughter company in China, Beijing), of VITO Middle East (Qatar) and VITO Arabia (Dubai) and member of the board of directors of VITO Asia (Hong Kong).
Managing Director of VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research
Dirk Fransaer
Blaž Kurnik has worked at the European Environment Agency since 2010 in various positions. He has been a coordinator or contributor to various EEA tasks on climate change impacts and adaptation and on disaster risk reduction. In 2018 and 2019, he was the acting head of a group on climate change adaptation and LULUCF. Blaž has been a coordinator and the lead author of a recent EEA assessment on climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector in Europe.
Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Expert at the European Environmental Agency
Blaž Kurnik
Gaby Langendijk is a climate scientist, focusing on regional climate modeling and climate change impacts in cities. She is going to present GERICS adaptation toolkit for cities, concept and application case studies within the panel on Future cities.
Researcher at Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), HZG
Gaby Langendijk
Maria was a coordinator of the preparation of the first Prague Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change approved by the Prague City Council in 2017. Then she was responsible for the preparation of the subsequent Implementation Plan to Prague Adaptation Strategy for the years 2018-2019 approved by the City Council in 2018. Now she is involved in preparation of the Implementation Plan for the period 2020-2024. Maria took an active part in various EU projects dealing with adaptation to climate change as UHI - Urban Heat Island, BASE and Urban Adapt, PUCS and Climate-fit city.
Senior Advisor at the Department of Environment of Prague
City Hall
Maria Kazmukova
Since his high interest in technology, the projects he has managed have always had a technological flavour. He has been enjoying pushing boundaries in an international and national context for the last decade. Today he has taken up the role of project manager of the internet of water project and will explain how technology can assist in water decision making.
Project Manager at IMEC City of Things
Koen Triangle
Cláudia Pascoal is a professor at the University of Minho, vice-director of the Institute of Science and Innovation for Bio-Sustainability and a researcher at the Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA), in Portugal. Her research has been addressing the impacts of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem processes in freshwaters. Currently, she is leading the CLIMALERT project aiming to provide climate information in a format that prospective users find easy to understand and incorporate into decision-making.
Senior Researcher at CLIMALERT, University of Minho, Portugal
Cláudia Pascoal
Rebecca Beeckman works for the data management and smart city department for energy and environment in Antwerp, Belgium. She is going to present 'Forecasting and communicating urban heatwaves in Antwerp' within the Health panel.
Project leader in the Data management and Smart City Department for Energy and Environment, Antwerp, Belgium
Rebecca Beeckman
Urs Grossenbacher is an electrical engineer. He holds a master’s degree in sustainable construction and is the director, co-founder and co-owner Pronoó AG, CH-Givisiez. Pronoó provides predictive control optimisation and energy monitoring services for HVAC-systems in buildings in Switzerland and France.
Project leader at Pronoó AG, Switzerland
Urs Grossenbacher
Frédéric Rosseneu is business development manager at Greenyard, a global player in fresh, frozen and prepared fruit & vegetables. He coordinates the group’s sustainability and innovation efforts. Prior to joining Greenyard in 2014, he was food quality & sustainability director at Freshfel, the European fresh produce association.
Business Development Manager at Greenyard, Belgium
Frédéric Rosseneu
Joan Ballester is a mathematician specialised in climate and epidemiology. The primary focus of his current research is the link between climate variability and health impacts, describing the major sources of vulnerability and how European societies are starting to adapt to climate change from a public health perspective.
Assistant Research Professor of the Climate and Health Program of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Joan Ballester
Luc Int Panis is a senior scientist at VITO with more than 25 years of experience in the evaluation of environmental and public health impacts of transport and air pollution. He is affiliated with Hasselt University as a guest professor with the transportation research Institute and Centre for Enviromental studies, teaching courses in Transport efficiency, Environmental policy, spatial aspects of transport, cost benefit analysis and external costs. His most recent research focusses on active mobility and health.
Senior Scientist, VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research
Luc Int Panis
Sébastien takes part to projects related to tourism adaptation with different approaches and targets. His team is currently involved in some projects related to the tourism adaptation, such as PROSNOW, a prediction system dedicated to ski resorts, and C3S (Copernicus Climate Change Service).
Consultant and researcher at Ramboll France
Sébastien Bruyère
Guy Hendrickx is the CEO of Avia-GIS, a consulting company which specialises in the development of spatial decision support systems to support the management of vector-borne disease. He was one of the first to use satellite imagery to reduce the cost of mapping the distribution of insects and the diseases they transmit, using the tsetse fly in West Africa as an example.
CEO of Avia-GIS, Belgium
Guy Hendrickx
Dr Adewole Adesiyun is the Deputy Secretary General of FEHRL (Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories).
He has a MSc and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland.
He was formerly an Assistant Professor at the Road and Bridge Research Institute in Poland and a Visiting Scientist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
Deputy Secretary General, Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories
Adewole Adesiyun

VENUE
The conference will be held at the AfricaMuseum Conference Centre in Tervuren. Tervuren is a green oasis on the outskirts of Brussels, on the outer edge of the Sonian Forest. The venue is easy to reach by public transport from Brussels Midi station (40 minutes via Montgomery station / Tram 44) and from the airport (30 minutes/bus 380).
There are also cycling lanes from Brussels city centre directly to Tervuren.
OUR SPONSORS
This conference is organised by Climate-fit.city. This H2020 project provides cities with the best scientific high-resolution climate data and tailored-to-fit climate services to help them prepare for extreme weather and the changing climate. Climate-fit.city is active in six areas: active mobility, building energy, emergency planning, leisure and tourism, health, and urban planning.
Climate-fit.city
ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
It is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing global numerical weather predictions and other data for our Member and Co-operating States and the broader community. The Centre has one of the largest supercomputer facilities and meteorological data archives in the world. Other strategic activities include delivering advanced training and assisting the WMO in implementing its programmes.
ECMWF implements the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service on behalf of the European Commission.
ECMWF
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) supports society by providing authoritative information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the World. The C3S mission is to support adaptation and mitigation policies of the European Union by providing consistent and authoritative information about climate change. We offer free and open access to climate data and tools based on the best available science. We listen to our users and endeavour to help them meet their goals in dealing with the impacts of climate change.
Copernicus Climate change services
The TIC Council is the new voice of the Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) industry which was launched in December 2018. Born from the merger of former global TIC industry organizations IFIA and CEOC, the TIC Council brings together more than 90 member companies and organizations from around the world to speak with one voice.
The TIC Council engages governments and key stakeholders to advocate for effective solutions that protect the public, facilitate trade and support innovation.
TIC Council
The Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) is a scientific organisational entity of Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG), based in Hamburg, Germany. GERICS functions as a think tank for climate services. GERICS offers in a scientifically sound manner products, advisory services, and decision-relevant information in order to support government, administration and business in their efforts to adapt to climate change.
GERICS
CLISWELN aims at building a long-lasting bridge between regional stakeholders and providers of regional climate scenario data by using the climate change data in integrated models and decision-making tools in order to analyse the complex Water-Energy-Land-Food Nexus (WELFN). CLISWELN contributes to the objectives of the project call by translating the results of integrated models forced with an ensemble of regional climate scenario data into tailored information for regional stakeholders.
CLISWELN
VITO is an independent Flemish research organisation in the area of cleantech and sustainable development. Vito accelerates the transition to a sustainable world. It reduces the risk of innovation for companies and strengthens the economic and social fabric of Flanders with interdisciplinary research and large-scale demonstrators.
VITO
Sustainability
Sustainability isn't rocket science ...
This Climate Services conference follows the European Commission guidelines on how to organise a sustainable meeting.
The conference venue was selected for its commitment to sustainability. In every decision we make, we are looking to reduce our environmental impact by limiting printed material and gadgets, avoiding useless packaging, single-use items and food waste. We also aim for food and beverages to be seasonal, plant-based and organic.
Sustainability also means transport! So we kindly ask that you take public transport to the venue or make the lovely bike ride from Brussels.