Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review and Advisory Group (SRAG) Terms of Reference

Remit

The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) commissions the Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) on behalf of Government to undertake a programme of work in climate science and modelling, to meet Government priorities in contributing to the UK Climate Science capability and provide the evidence base to support DESNZ, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) departmental objectives on Climate Change (the ‘government customers’).

The Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review and Advisory Group (SRAG) brings together experts from different disciplines to advise its government customers on the content, progress, scientific excellence, relevance and impact of the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (HCCP) funded by Government. The SRAG reports directly to the HCCP Programme Board, chaired by the DESNZ Chief Scientific Adviser, which is a strategic decision-making panel comprised of Government Officials, Met Office representatives and the Chair of the SRAG. Operational matters sit outside the remit of SRAG and are managed separately by the HCCP Management group, who can raise matters where necessary to the Programme Board. An outline of the HCCP governance structure, and SRAG’s role within it, is provided in Annex 1.

At a high level the SRAG has three roles:

1. To provide top-level quality assurance that the HCCP undertakes science of the appropriate quality to provide the best advice on climate science to its government customers.
2. To review and advise on the strategic direction of the Programme to ensure it delivers the most impact in addressing UK Government needs while developing the necessary capability to address future needs.
3. To review how the HCCP enables research in the wider UK and international community, including its relationship with other research organisations.

 

Responsibilities

Yearly in-person meeting (Met Office HQ, Exeter) and SRAG report

The SRAG meets annually for 3-4 days, normally each January, alongside the annual meeting of the Met Office Science Advisory Committee (MOSAC). MOSAC has a remit to review the Met Office's Foundation, Weather and Climate Science programmes and the integrated nature of these programmes, with the exception of HCCP which SRAG covers. MOSAC members are appointed by the Met Office, unlike SRAG members, who are appointed by the Government customers of the programme. The agenda for the meetings is agreed between DESNZ, Defra, FCDO, the SRAG Chair and the Director of the MOHC, and typically includes: joint sessions with MOSAC to examine issues related to Met Office underpinning science and supercomputing that cut across wider Met Office activities, SRAG-only topic sessions that focus on key areas of interest for that year in the HCCP, and a discussion with MOHC Strategic Heads, fellows and principal fellows (Science Fellows lead on the delivery of research and technical advancements within their area of work, Strategic Heads direct and enable multiple scientific teams within a particular science area, while Principal Fellows shape and lead on one of the themes outlined in the Met Office Research and Innovation Strategy). DESNZ, Defra, FCDO and SRAG members will receive a full pack of meeting papers at least two weeks in advance of the meeting.

The SRAG will produce a report outlining the main conclusions and recommendations arising from the review process, highlighting key recommendations where they expect to see progress during the following year, which will be submitted to the HCCP Programme Board. The report will be delivered within 6 weeks following the SRAG meeting, and 4 weeks prior to the MOHC Programme Board meeting. DESNZ, Defra and FCDO may request a draft version of the report prior to that date, in which case the SRAG Chair will agree the terms under which the draft report will be delivered.

The aims of the meeting and report are for SRAG to:

• Review the overall performance of the MOHC in meeting the priorities of its government customers as reflected in the HCCP and in addressing previous SRAG recommendations, providing input to the broader HCCP Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities.
• Review and quality assure major scientific developments in the work of the HCCP.
• Advise on the content and strategic direction of the HCCP. This will include advising on the appropriate balance between scientific excellence and policy-led science; the balance between addressing scientific questions in the current HCCP and developing capability that will enable future advances; the impact of wider Met Office activities on the HCCP and vice versa; the delivery of underpinning climate science capability at the Met Office and impacts on the strategic direction of future HCCPs.
• Review collaborations and interactions between the HCCP and research activities in the wider Met Office and other research institutions in the UK and internationally, including how these partnerships help deliver the objectives of the HCCP and the impact of the HCCP on UK and international research.
• Highlight key recommendations to be taken forward to the HCCP Programme Board. The Chair of the SRAG will normally be expected to present a summary of their report and recommendations to the Programme Board at their next meeting, with the Met Office given the right to reply at the same meeting.

The most important recommendations from the report will be reviewed throughout the year to ensure the Met Office is making adequate progress in addressing issues raised by SRAG, including an initial response upon receiving the report, and an update at the mid-year meeting. Further updates can be requested from the Government customers or SRAG chair if deemed necessary, and where there are concerns that the Met Office is not making meaningful progress, this will be escalated to either the Management Group or Programme Board as appropriate.

Virtual mid-year meeting

A virtual meeting in September/October to review MO progress on the SRAG report recommendations, and to discuss any other strategic issues that either SRAG or Government have identified where SRAG input might be helpful. While not all SRAG members will be expected to attend, specific members may be asked to join if their specific expertise is required. The agenda will be set by discussion between the Government customers and SRAG Chair, in consultation with the Director of the Hadley Centre, and will concentrate on the most important recommendations set out in the SRAG report.

Additional contributions

Members may be called on to provide input between meetings where their expertise would be particularly valuable. This should not exceed one request per member per year, or one day’s worth of effort, unless agreed with the SRAG member. Contributions could include:

• Providing advice during the development of new HCCP workplans, for example by reviewing specific sections of workplan drafts when they are in development.
• Reviewing a case study which evidences progress and lessons learned on specific aspects of the programme.
• Providing ad-hoc input to Government around strategic issues when they arise.

Chair responsibilities

In addition to the responsibilities outlined above, the SRAG chair:

• Works with Government to set the direction of SRAG and implement lessons learned to ensure it is providing the best possible advice on the delivery and direction of the HCCP.
• Represents SRAG at the HCCP Programme Board and the End of Year review/Stage Gate in an advisory capacity.
• Chairs SRAG meetings and leads the drafting and delivery of the SRAG report, coordinating views and contributions from all SRAG members.

 

Membership

The SRAG has a membership of 10 to 12 Members, each of whom is recruited for a 4-year term, on a staggered basis. Members may be re-appointed, to a total maximum of 8 years. See Annex 2 for a list of current and outgoing members.

The SRAG Chair will be appointed by the HCCP Senior Responsible Owner (DESNZ’s Head of Climate Science) and a panel of Programme Board members. SRAG Members will be appointed by the SRAG Chair and a panel of Management Group members. Membership will aim to bring together a broad range of expertise, including the application of research outputs for mitigation and adaptation activities. A balance between UK and non-UK experts is desirable. For specific issues additional experts may be temporarily consulted or asked to provide a written review.

 

Renumeration

SRAG members will be eligible to receive an annual honorarium in recognition of their valuable contributions to the HCCP. The annual honorarium payment will be based on a day rate as outlined when applying and an expected time commitment per year of 8 days for SRAG members and 14 days for the SRAG chair. Reasonable travel and subsistence expenses for the annual meeting in Exeter will also be paid to cover the costs of attendance.

 

Annex 1: Governance structure of the HCCP

External Governance for the programme is depicted in Figure 1 along with responsibilities of each governance group.  

Figure 1: The Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme external governance structure.

 

Programme Board

The Programme Board is a strategic decision-making panel comprising senior representatives from across government, the Met Office and academia, responsible for ensuring that the Climate Programme provides outputs and climate science which support and inform policy decisions. The science includes model development, observations, supercomputing, and knowledge integration products. These underpin the Met Office Hadley Centre climate services to inform both short and long-term planning for the government customers. The Board is also responsible for defining and agreeing the scope of future Climate Programmes, making recommendations for funding and governance arrangements, and can provide high level endorsement for the programme rationale and objectives. It is responsible for recommending major changes to the strategic direction or scope of the programme for approval by the Senior Responsible Officer of the Climate Programme.

The Board includes:

• Senior representatives from the programme’s funding departments, and major customers.
• Independent scientific advisor (the Chair of the Science Review Group).
• Independent academic board member.
• Representatives from DSIT as sponsors of the Met Office.
• Met Office as Senior Supplier.
• Observers from other government departments are also able to attend.

 

Management Group

The Management Group is responsible for overseeing the delivery of the programme and escalating major risks, strategic decisions and recommendations to the Programme Board. It comprises programme managers from the central government core-funding and service user departments (DESNZ, Defra and FCDO), and representatives from the Met Office and MOHC.

The Management Group meet quarterly, and meetings are arranged by the DESNZ Climate Capability Team. The following papers will be circulated to the group by the Met Office five working days before the meeting for discussion:

• A programme dashboard (see Section 14 on External Monitoring & Reporting)
• Details of change requests, and changes made in the last quarter.
• Risk Register with new and red risks highlighted, and a path to green.

In addition, the Management Group are responsible for facilitating the formal annual KPI review and mid-term Stage Gate review, and will report the outcome of this to the Programme Board.

 

Interdepartmental Met Office Strategy Group (IMOSG) 

Comprising relevant government departments, the devolved administrations, and the Met Office, the IMOSG meets periodically to review, at a strategic level, Government’s overall priorities for the Met Office.

 

User Group

The User Group, reporting to the Management Group, comprises the Met Office Hadley Centre (as service provider), DESNZ as chair, and a cross-Government group of customers working with climate information in their respective departments. Despite the name, this group currently focuses on engaging with people working on or with climate science across Government, rather than a much broader view of users of the HCCP. The Met Office are happy to work with DESNZ, who own the group, to review its membership and structure, as well as how the Met Office helps support engagement with it. As it currently stands, this group is used to add to our understanding of the needs of UK government for climate science information through science updates from participating departments and gathering feedback on specific topics of interest discussed at the user group, which are agreed upon by the DESNZ chair and Met Office. The user group are also asked to provide input on a selected subset of Knowledge Integration (KI) outputs process at various stages in line with an agreed approach with Primary Stakeholders. This is done in a targeted way to use time and resources of KI and user group members in an efficient way to help ensure information produced will be useful to a range of departments when completed.

 

Annex 2: Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review and Advisory Group - Members’ Terms of Service Details

Name	Start of appointment	End of appointment	Areas of expertise/interest
Prof. Hayley Fowler (chair) University of Newcastle, UK	2021	Mid-2028	Hydro-climatologist – impacts of climate change and variability on hydrological and water resource systems
Dr. Venkatramani Balaji Schmidt Sciences, USA	2019	Mid-2027	Climate Modelling – interests in parallel computing and scientific infrastructure
Prof. Tatiana Ilyina Universität Hamburg, Germany	2019	Mid-2027	Ocean biogeochemist – ocean carbon cycle and related climate-carbon-cycle feedbacks
Prof. Christian Jakob Monash University, Australia	2022	Mid-2026	Climate models and their improvement; representation of cloud dynamics in models
Prof. Andrew Shepherd Northumbria University, UK	2022	Mid-2026	Earth observations; polar science; climate science
Prof. Mark New University of Cape Town, South Africa	2022	Mid-2026	Climate services; climate impacts, risk, resilience, adaptation; climate model evaluation
Prof. Suraje Dessai University of Leeds, UK	2023	Mid-2027	Science-policy interface in climate change impacts, adaptation and services; management of climate-change uncertainties; perceptions of climate risk
Prof. Willem Landman University of Pretoria, South Africa	2024	Mid-2028	Seasonal prediction, climate dynamics/variability, applications of seasonal forecasting for impacts
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