The focal project has reached another major milestone

What impact can global climate data have where it is most needed – locally in cities, forests and communities?

The FOCAL project team is working on an open digital ecosystem that will harness and make accessible highly complex climate, environmental, and Earth observation data. The project is built on the integration of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and intelligent workflow management.

The project has two pilot areas, urban planning and forestry, key areas that need to build resilience to climate change and make decisions based on accurate satellite data.

Haf-year evaluation

In May 2025, we attended the FOCAL project review meeting in Prague. The meeting was a valuable opportunity for us to exchange knowledge and mutual inspiration with FOCAL project partners.

Jozef Krajčí, Chief Operating Officer of YMS, says: “We presented our progress in developing an application to support decision-making in the field of climate adaptation. Our application integrates Earth observation data and climate models to enable urban planners and foresters to effectively assess the impacts of climate change at the local level. During the meeting, we discussed its functions – from the visualization of climate scenarios to decision-support tools. We also emphasized the importance of collaborating with experts and local governments in supporting the user-friendliness of the solution.

Project FOCAL

(Efficient exploratiOn of Climate dAta Locally) IS A THREE-YEAR INITIATIVE FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION UNDER THE HORIZON EUROPE PROGRAMME, AIMING TO MAKE COMPLEX CLIMATE DATA AND MODELS ACCESSIBLE TO A WIDE RANGE OF USERS. IT will CREATE AN OPEN PLATFORM THAT COMBINES INTELLIGENT WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT WITH HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS FOR THE EFFICIENT PROCESSING OF EARTH OBSERVATION DATA AND CLIMATE MODELS.

The project focuses on two pilot areas – urban planning and forestry – and involves experts and local governments in co-designing applications that will help assess the impacts of climate change at the local level.

The project partners include renowned institutions such as the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, and the Slovak company YMS, which is developing a user-friendly application for urban planners and foresters.

FOCAL also supports small and medium-sized enterprises by providing them with access to modules and tools to develop their own solutions, thereby contributing to increasing society’s resilience to climate change and promoting sustainable practices.