Accurate long-time numerical integration is a fundamental problem in many areas of science and engineering, particularly when simulating complex systems, such as weather and climate. Variational discretization techniques aim to address this by preserving fundamental conservation laws of the mathematical model at the discrete level. The goal of this workshop will be to bring together academic experts on variational discretization and researchers from operational weather and climate prediction centres to discuss the potential use for these integrators in the next generation of Earth simulation models. The idea of the workshop will be to have introductory-level talks by both groups, focused research talks, and break-out sessions to discuss potential paths for implementing variational integrators in operational forecasting systems.