The 3rd annual meeting of HErZ took place at the DWD headquarters in Offenbach from 24-26 March 2026. About 70 scientists from the HErZ community and DWD took part in this event. The project leaders reported on ongoing joint activities and on the progress made in each of the HErZ projects. The early career scientists (ECS) presented their joint activities, as well as their research results in more detail during poster sessions. The leaders of the competence areas also presented their research and their networking activities to better connect the HErZ projects with DWD. Many lively discussions took place during the meeting with different groups of colleagues, e.g. the scientific advisory board of HErZ (“Programmrat”), the expert contact persons ("fachliche Ansprechpersonen") and DWD colleagues.

Participants of the meeting on 25 March 2026 in Offenbach. © P. Füssel (DWD)

The ECS organized their own meeting to which ca. 16 participants from all HErZ projects took part. The program included presentations from DWD colleagues about AICON, the impact of AI methods on data assimilation, and the available ICON-DREAM and ICON-FORCE reanalyses. An interactive session on Git and Python also took place, as well as further activities such as a presentation on career opportunities at DWD, a visit of the HPC room, and a joint dinner in Frankfurt. Thank you to Stefano Franzoni (HErZ-DA, Munich) and Moritz Schnelke (MBL-ICON, Frankfurt) for the organisation of this meeting, as well as to all the speakers and participants of the annual meeting of HErZ for the exciting and valuable discussions throughout the three days of the meeting!

Presentation of Arianna Valmassoi (DWD) at the ECS meeting. © A. Laurian (DWD)