The first working meeting withing the frame of the implementation of the Project on inter-institutional cooperation between Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center and Finnish Meteorological Institute
Representatives of Finnish Meteorological Institute Mr. Harry Pietarila and Dr. Anne Hirsikko visited Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center with the working meeting on January 12th and 13th, 2022. At the same time it was the the first working meeting due to the implementation of the Project on inter-institutional cooperation between Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center and Finnish Meteorological Institute, jointly developed by Ukrainian and Finnish specialists and recently approved by the Ministry Foreign Affairs of Finland, through which the Finnish government will finance realization measures within the framework of the Project in the amount of 2 million euro for the next 4 years.
The project involves modernization and technical re-equipment of 10 meteorological stations in Ukraine, appropriate training and education of Ukrainian specialists, improvement of the whole chain passing meteorological information from receiving unprocessed data to provided ready forecasting products in modern final formats to consumers. In particular, i monitoring of the environment in various regions of our countries will be improved because monitoring of the weather and environment is closely connected.
The overarching goal of the Project is to bring the work standards of the hydrometeorological industry of Ukraine to EU standards. In this regard, the implementation of this Ukrainian-Finnish Project will be a small but concrete contribution to the general cause of rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU.
The purpose of the working meeting on January 12-13, 2022 was to start the practical implementation of the Project. The meeting, which was attended by managers and experts of UHMC and the Department of Hydrometeorology of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, began with the welcoming words of the director of UHMC, Dr. M.I. Kulbida and FMI representatives - they expressed confidence in the successful implementation of the started project through strict adherence to a carefully developed schedule of activities and steps.
The Project Manager, Dr. Anna Hirsikko, who, in particular, has extensive experience in aviation weather monitoring, including remote sensing, was introduced.
Among other things, it was noted that this project will contribute to the implementation of another important project in the South-Eastern Europe region - Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (SEE - MHEWS-A).
A significant moment of the meeting was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between UHMC and FMI.
The first day of the working meeting ended with a visit by the guests from Finland to the specialized television studio of UHMC, recently created by the interaction with media sector, where video stories with weather forecasts are created for a number of Ukrainian television channels.
The next day, on January 13th, the 1st meeting of the Project Steering Board, established in accordance with its provisions, took place.
The Governing Board includes 2 representatives from both cooperating parties:
M.I. Kulbida and O.M. Skoropad - from UHMC, Anna Hirsikko and Harry Pietarilla - from FMI.
At their first meeting, which took place in a mutual understanding and constructive consideration of all issues atmosphere, both parties reviewed in detail and agreed on the plan and budget for the implementation of the Project, the comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, expressed by it during the project document review, and also agreed on measures to ensure visibility of the Project through mass media - holding in a few months (depending on the situation with Covid-19) a "kick-off event" - presentation of the Project, making of relevant thematic printed materials.
