Abstract
The primary developers and stakeholders of the Los Alamos sea ice model, CICE, are forming a new sea-ice modeling consortium to formalize and enhance the collaborative alliance that has fostered the model’s development over the past two decades. The CICE Consortium will incorporate and maintain new research and development in collaboration with the larger sea ice modeling community, in order to accelerate the transfer of scientific sea ice model development into operational use and for the wider research community, including ACME. This multi-agency, international Consortium represents a microcosm of larger R&D/operational alliances now developing within the U.S. climate and weather prediction community, for which our experience may provide guidance, including a governance model, intellectual property protection within an open software development environment, and innovative solutions for code confidence and acceptance testing as it advances from research into operations.