This workshop on 25-27th November 2026 at the University of Exeter is organised by the EU project “Past to Future” in collaboration with the EU projects “ClimTip“, the ARIA project “AdvanTip” and the Met Office Academic Partnership (MOAP) core strategic research and innovation theme on “Capturing Environmental Complexity”.
The aim of this workshop is to explore the state of the art in understanding how complexity and complex systems thinking can help improve our understanding of past, and prediction of future ocean variability. There will be a particular emphasis on North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean variability and on bringing insights from the various projects together. We plan a number of speakers and time for interaction and discussion.
Schedule
Wednesday 25th November 2026: University of Exeter main (Streatham) campus
Theme: Palaeoclimate tipping: bumps from the past
Harrison Building, Room 101
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch and welcome | |
| 13:30-14:10 | Lecture: Louise Sime (BAS) | ‘Do our climate models capture global-scale tipping? A view from paleoclimate.’ |
| 14:10-15:10 | Lectures | |
| 15:10-15:30 | Break | |
| 15:30-16:10 | Lecture: Dan Lunt (Bristol) | |
| 16:10-17:30 | Lectures/discussion | |
| 17:30- | Self-organised dinner |
Thursday 26th November 2026: University of Exeter main (Streatham) campus
Theme: Linking past to future climate: learning from complexity
Queens MR2
| 9:00-9:40 | Lecture: Sacha Sinet (Utrecht) | |
| 9:40-10:10 | Break | |
| 10:10-11:30 | Lectures | |
| 11:30-12:30 | Discussion |
Building One Pearson
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch | |
| 13:30-14:30 | Campus walk |
Queens MR2
| 14:30-15:10 | Lecture: | |
| 15:10-15:30 | Break | |
| 15:30-16:30 | Lectures | |
| 16:30-17:30 | Posters | |
| 17:30- | Dinner |
Friday 27th November 2026: University of Exeter main (Streatham) campus
Theme: Impacts in the future; Capturing variability
Harrison Building, Room 103 (**Room 101 from 11:30),
| 9:00-9:40 | Lecture: Richard Wood (Met Office) | |
| 9:40-10:20 | Lecture: Mark Williamson (Exeter) | |
| 10:20-10:50 | Break | |
| 10:50-11:30 | Lectures | |
| 11:30-12:30 | Discussion and next steps | |
| 12:30- | End of formal programme: self-organised lunch on campus |
Registration & Accommodation
There is no registration fee, but do not have funds for travel and accommodation, and advise those needing accommodation to book this independently. As space is limited, we ask all attendees to register in advance via the on-line form:
Registration — Workshop: Climate, Oceans and Complexity – Fill in form
Organizers
- Peter Ashwin (University of Exeter)
- Anna von der Heydt (Utrecht University)
- Sneha Kachhara (University of Exeter)
- Sjoerd Terpstra (Utrecht University)
- Hemant Khatri (Met Office)
This workshop is run as part of “Past to Future” (P2F). This is a 4-year Horizon Europe research project which launched in March 2025 and brings together 25 partners from a wide-range of disciplines in future climate model development, paleo-climate data collection, and applied mathematics. Our goal is to make optimal use of past climatic information to better understand Earth’s climate response to various kinds of forcing, focusing on abrupt climate transitions and tipping points.
For more details, see https://past2future.org/about-p2f/
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Grant Agreement Number: 101184070