Small Business Discount

Q: Which companies can receive small business discount from the 1st of January 2022?

ECMWF will adopt the classification of businesses by the European Commission and will apply discounts to 'micro' businesses, i.e. companies with less than 10 staff headcount and an annual turnover/balance sheet total of no more than 2 million euros. 

Q: Do both criteria for 'micro' businesses apply? 

A: Yes, as per the EU implementation, the staff count AND turnover will apply for the new Small Business Discount. 

Q: Can I terminate my licence early in order to start the discount before my renewal date?

A: Yes, you can terminate but the three-month notice period will be upheld.  Once you terminate a licence, you will no longer be able to make changes to that licence and so any data changes must be incorporated from the new licence or before terminating.

Q: Does this apply to all real-time contracts?

A: This applies to Standard Commercial licences.  It does not apply to Maximum Charge licences. 

Q: What happens if my current discount is better?

A: Unfortunately, from the renewal, we will not be able to continue this discount scheme. 

Q: Will there be a discount for archive licences? 

A: Yes, there will be a small business discount for 'micro' businesses. These companies will receive 50% discount on archive orders. This means the annual fee will become 3,000 EUR.

European Cut-out Licence

Q: What counts as a 'parameter'?

A: This includes: 

• A single surface field (i.e. 10U) 
• A pressure level field at all available levels (i.e. U at all pressure levels)
• A model level field at all available levels (i.e. U at all model levels)

Note that volume charges may apply if you exceed 100GB per day. 

Q: Can I have more than one European Cut-out Licence?

A: Yes. For each licence, the full Handling / Volume charges would apply. 

Q: Can I opt for a smaller area than25N-84N, 74W-45E?

A: No, this package doesn't allow for subsetting of this area.

Q: Can I opt for a coarser temporal or spatial resolution?

A: No, this package comes with the highest temporal and spatial resolution. 

Archive Licence

Q: What will change with respect to the archive licence?

A: For ECMWF, access for commercial users currently costs 5,000 GBP per year. From the 1st of January 2022, the price will be 6,000 EUR per year. There will also be a discount of 50% for 'micro' businesses. 'Micro' businesses are defined as companies with less than 10 staff headcount, and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than 2 million euros.