The UKESM project is a collaboration between NERC and the Met Office, to develop, apply and analyse the next generation of UK Earth system models (ESMs). UKESM has two overriding objectives:

• To develop and apply a world-leading Earth System Model.
• Grow a community of UK ESM scientists.

The UKESM core team, was established in 2013, jointly funded by NERC and the Met Office builds on other projects developing component models in the UK modelling community.

The project will run from 2013-2022. It has delivered the first version of the model, UKESM1, which is being used for the UK’s ESM contribution to the next international coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6).

The UKESM Long Term Science Multi-centre (LTSM) project is formed from the MetOffice plus 8 NERC-funded centres: NCAS, BAS, BGS, CEH, CPOM, NCEO, NOC and PML. UKESM LTSM funds the NERC component of the core group plus a number of NERC centre scientists to work on the development and analysis of UKESM1.