Climate and Weather Research Alliance Singapore

The Climate and Weather Research Alliance Singapore (CAWRAS) is a national collaborative platform for tropical climate and weather research in Singapore and Southeast Asia. It was established on 5 September 2025 and jointly established by the National Environment Agency (NEA), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore), and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The platform is led by the Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) and is intended to build a local talent pipeline as well as research capability (joint NEA/A*STAR/NTU/NUS release, 5 September 2025).

What CAWRAS implements

CAWRAS's first major role is implementing the S$25 million Weather Science Research Programme (WSRP) under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan. The alliance brings together research institutions to address tropical urban-weather challenges using high-resolution modelling, artificial intelligence, and enhanced observation networks. The collaboration is designed to extend to longer-timescale climate research in future; CAWRAS is therefore a platform for coordinated research, not a standalone public forecasting service or a single grant paid to every participating institution (NEA/A*STAR/NTU/NUS, 5 September 2025).

Research clusters and projects

The WSRP work coordinated through CAWRAS is organised around four foundational clusters: observations, next-generation models, regional reanalysis, and post-processing. AI and machine learning are cross-cutting methods rather than a separate fifth cluster. The launch release listed ten awarded WSRP projects, including radar-data assimilation, urban-weather modelling, air-sea-land interactions, regional reanalysis, AI foundation models, convective-hazard prediction, and forecast blending. Ten awarded projects means ten research awards or project lines; it does not mean ten completed operational forecasting products (NEA/A*STAR/NTU/NUS, 5 September 2025; CCRS, CWRPO).

CAWRET shared research platform

The Climate and Weather Research and Evaluation Testbed (CAWRET) supports CAWRAS as a virtual shared research platform. Hosted by A*STAR, it gives Singapore-based researchers access to observation databases, advanced modelling capabilities and supercomputing resources through a partnership with the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore. CAWRET is research infrastructure: access to it does not itself certify a model, guarantee forecast accuracy, or make a research result an operational MSS warning (CCRS, CWRPO).

Relationship to CCRS and WSRP

CAWRAS, CCRS and WSRP are related but not interchangeable. CCRS is the MSS research division and institutional lead; WSRP is the RIE2025-funded research programme; CAWRAS is the multi-institutional alliance implementing that programme and supporting future collaborative work; and CAWRET is the shared testbed. Public weather forecasts and warnings remain operational products of the Meteorological Service Singapore and should be checked for the relevant date, location and advisory. Research results can improve those services over time, but the alliance's launch does not prove that every result is already deployed or accurate in all conditions.