On 10 and 11 January 2015 Greg Bodeker attended a SPARC Capacity Development workshop in Granada, Spain. The purpose of the workshop was to establish an implementation plan for capacity development in SPARC.
The workshop followed from a lunchtime workshop that was held during the 2014 SPARC General Assembly in Queenstown a year ago. It was clear from that meeting that capacity development problems are regionally specific and solutions should be relevant to the region. This relevance could serve as an incentive for the regions to get involved in SPARC-related science. The purpose of the workshop, therefore, was to develop components of a strategy for SPARC capacity development and to develop a realistic programme of action for the next five years from which regional solutions to local capacity development can then be developed. The target regions for SPARC capacity development are South and Central America, Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

The stated strategic objective of the capacity development initiative in SPARC is to encourage involvement in, and create opportunities for, participation in SPARC activities by establishing and supporting collaborations and training of scientists from developing countries, and to foster careers of the next generation of scientists. This objective will be achieved by:

• Devising tailored capacity development solutions for different regions; 
• Understanding the lasting and sustainable impacts on human capabilities and know-how on SPARC research; 
• Stimulating bottom-up initiatives and building on existing networks and regional structures to encourage skills exchange; 
• Overcoming the disconnect between regional scientists/structures and SPARC; and 
• Using the SPARC community as a rich resource of experts (or upcoming experts) for building the network. 

Achieving these objectives will require active mobilisation of expertise from within the SPARC community in the first instance, but likely also by accessing resources from partner and parent organisations of WCRP. Additionally, this will involve targeted efforts towards raising financial support from a range of donors and partners.

Specific to this last point, Bodeker Scientific will be organising a SPARC capacity development event during the International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography (ICSHMO) that will take place in Santiago, Chile, from 5-9 October 2015 . Bodeker Scientific will be providing NZ$1,000 in support of this event and will be looking to co-sponsorship from research and funding agencies both in New Zealand and internationally in support of this event.