ECMWF’s Council, representing 35 Member and Co-operating States, has announced the appointment of Dr Florian Pappenberger as the Centre’s next Director-General from 1 January 2026. He will take over the post from Dr Florence Rabier.

Commenting on the appointment, ECMWF Council President Professor Penny Endersby said: “With his experience in forecasting and his track record of driving innovation through collaboration, Florian emerged from a strong field as the right person to lead ECMWF into the future. The AI and machine learning tools co-developed under his leadership – such as the Anemoi framework – have been built together with our Member States and show real potential to broaden access to advanced, data-driven forecasting. We look forward to working closely with Florian to build on these successes and strengthen our partnership across all Member States and the European Meteorological Infrastructure.

“The Council and I are extremely grateful to Florence Rabier for her outstanding leadership of ECMWF over the past decade through a period a major change and expansion, strategically extending the Centre's geographical footprint and embracing new technological developments.”

Florian Pappenberger has been ECMWF’s Deputy Director-General since 2021 and has led the Centre’s forecasting operations for nine years. In these roles, he has focused on the needs of the Member States and the wider user community and has driven technological innovation. Dr Pappenberger has championed ECMWF’s AI and machine learning (ML) activities, recently guiding the operationalisation of the Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System (AIFS) alongside implementations of traditional physics-based models.

Welcoming his new role, Dr Pappenberger said: “I am delighted to be entrusted with the leadership of ECMWF at such an exciting time, when technology is transforming how forecasts are produced and delivered.”

As Deputy Director-General, Dr Pappenberger has overseen ECMWF’s round-the-clock global forecasting operations and the development of new services and products for stakeholders. He has also led major initiatives, including ECMWF’s move towards a free and open data framework, and collaborative projects like the Anemoi machine learning framework, which pools expertise across Europe to drive the next generation of weather prediction. These efforts, conducted in close cooperation with Member State national hydrometeorological services, have aimed to push the boundaries of forecasting while ensuring practical benefits for society.

He said: “I am extremely proud of the progress ECMWF has made in recent years in close collaboration with our Member States – from expanding open data access to pioneering AI/ML tools and with the position we have collectively achieved. I have appreciated Florence’s leadership, and we will continue to build on the strong foundation she and others have laid as we move forward.”

Dr Pappenberger has been involved in the implementation of ECMWF’s contributions to the European Union’s (EU) Copernicus Earth observation programme, including the climate change and atmosphere monitoring services the Centre operates for the European Commission, and to the EU’s Destination Earth initiative. He contributed to the successful migration of ECMWF’s operational forecasting systems to its new high-performance computing data centre in Bologna, Italy.

Florian Pappenberger will assume the role of Director-General on 1 January 2026, succeeding Dr Florence Rabier, who has served as ECMWF’s Director-General since 2016 and will retire at the end of 2025.

Dr Florence Rabier concludes: “Florian and I have worked closely together with ECMWF's other directors over the past years and will ensure the best transition for the organisation and our stakeholders. In my last six months, there is much to deliver, and the pace and excitement will be kept up starting with securing the funding decision and launching the procurement for the next supercomputer, the launch of our open data, the implementation of a new version of the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) model with a range of innovative developments, our impact on AI and machine learning together with the Member States, and the celebrations of our 50th anniversary in Bologna and Reading. The next six months will also be critical in securing the next phase of funding for Copernicus and Destination Earth.”