The year of 2014 has been very busy for CLIVAR. The ICPO relocated from Southampton (UK) to its distributed office in Qingdao (China) and Pune (India). In July the first ever pan-CLIVAR meeting took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and provided the opportunity for members of CLIVAR panels to discuss activities with the CLIVAR Research Foci teams. In order to take stock of all those discussions and review documentation submitted by the Research Foci teams, the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG) met in Moscow, Russian Federation, 10-12 November 2014. During those three days, members of the SSG, including the newly appointed members, discussed the recent proposals for science plans and implementation activities for each of the seven Research Foci. The ICPO is in the process of preparing feedback to all those groups, with suggestions on how they should move forward with their plans.

Another topic that was discussed at length during the meeting was the CLIVAR Open Science Conference (OSC), planned to take place in Qingdao, China, in the third quarter of 2016. This will be the first CLIVAR conference since 2004 in Baltimore, USA. The OSC 2016 will focus on solving climate problems of the future that will require even more comprehensive engagement and interdisciplinary approaches. The aim is to provide a dynamic forum for the CLIVAR community to meet with members of other WCRP and related projects and disciplines, to appraise progress and identify new opportunities to work together. The Conference will also provide an ideal opportunity to highlight climate issues and research in the Asia Pacific region. A Scientific Organizing Committee is being formed and an open call for parallel sessions will soon be issued.

A meeting report will soon be available. The CLIVAR SSG is grateful to the support received from the meeting's hosts: the Russian Academy of Sciences and the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology