Overview

ECMWF Product Distribution Rules are designed to provide access to different user types while ensuring a level playing field is maintained in the competitive market place, and each user is given the same licence agreement to govern the conditions of use. 

This means that not all users are entitled to a Research Project licence but may require a Service Provider licence. The nature of an organisation does not guarantee access: some commercial entities conduct research, while some research institutions provide services (whether for profit or not).

Key Definitions

• Research Project: Any time-bound** project organised for non-commercial research purposes only, where an ongoing/continuous service based on ECMWF Products is not permitted without written consent from the Licensor. A necessary condition for the recognition of non-commercial purposes is that all the results obtained are openly available at delivery costs only, without any delay linked to commercial objectives, and that the research itself is submitted for open publication.
  
  ** Research licences cannot be longer than the duration of the project itself and up to a maximum of 3 years, whichever is shorter. A research licence may be renewed for research projects lasting longer than 3 years.
  
  
• Results: may include written reports, publications, presentations, and other forms of research output that do not involve the distribution or real-time Products or services based on real-time Products except where permission is granted.

Alternatives

Unfortunately, ECMWF is unable to support every Research Project and management/Licensors may decline free provision, or charges may apply for the delivery of data. 

However, we can recommend a number of alternative datasets which may be useful

• ECMWF Open Data (available via ECMWF, Microsoft, Amazon and Google Cloud)
• TIGGE
• S2S
• NCAR Repository (for North American research users)