Future Earth newsletter - January 2013

Future Earth in the regions

---

Three workshops on Future Earth were held in Cape Town, Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City between October and December 2012. They brought together scientists working on global environmental change and other stakeholders to discuss the research framework and look at ways that Future Earth could operate in the regions.

Involving researchers and stakeholders at the regional level is critical for the success of Future Earth. These workshops were the first in a series and were funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The overall aim was to look at the early design features of Future Earth proposed by the Transition Team and determine priorities and pathways for developing Future Earth in the regions. The workshops were organized respectively by the ICSU Regional Offices in Africa (31 October-2 November, Cape Town), Asia-Pacific (21-23 November, Kuala Lumpur), and Latin America and the Caribbean (3-4 December, Mexico City). Each brought together approximately 50 scientists from universities, research institutes and governments, development organisations, representatives of regional networks such as the Asia-Pacific Network and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, capacity builders and funders.

Future Earth needs to address development challenges

The workshops combined presentations, working sessions and interactive debates, giving participants the opportunity to express hopes and concerns for Future Earth in their regions and globally.
Participants highglighted the need for developing and least developed countries to align the Future Earth research agenda with stakeholder needs in the regions, particularly around development challenges, to ensure relevance and uptake of research results. They also stressed the importance of improving capacity among the research, policy and practitioner communities.

A new culture of transdisciplinarity

The Cape Town workshop featured a number of highlights, including discussion of how to build a new culture of transdisciplinarity among scientists and stakeholders. Early career scientists were identified as a key stakeholder group for Future Earth in Africa, and the creation of an African Network for Widening Earth-system research by Emerging Researchers (ANSWER) was proposed at the workshop. South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom presided over a successful outreach event at the University of Cape Town for students and researchers  which featured a presentation of Future Earth and a lively panel discussion on the key challenges Future Earth faces in Africa. An interim steering group was established, including participants on a voluntary basis to formalise the next steps for the development of Future Earth in the region.

Future Earth: a new opportunity for global sustainability



In Kuala Lumpur, participants said they saw Future Earth as an opportunity for scientists to take a leading role in the shift towards sustainability in view of the social, economic and environmental challenges in the region. There was discussion of how Future Earth could ensure that knowledge translates into action, and questions around how to engage business and policymakers.
Participants called for research for global-local sustainability that would link knowledge across scales to inform regional and local decision-making while contributing to global environmental assessments. They also emphasised the importance of regions in linking global and local levels and bringing together stakeholders. Participants proposed setting up a regional committee to explore this difference and supported the idea of more regional workshops to map out existing initiatives and identify a governance model for Future Earth.
In Mexico City, participants called for stronger South-North collaboration with developing countries taking a leading role in coordinating international collaborative research projects. There was a lively debate on the role of scientists in policy processes. Participants felt that scientists need to be more involved in policy work to not only deliver knowledge but participate in its uptake.

For more information on the events and to download documentation and presentations from the regional workshops in Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City, follow the corresponding links:
Asia Regional Workshop, Kuala Lumpur
Africa Regional Workshop, Cape Town
Latin America Regional Workshop, Mexico City
 

Global Environmental Change projects gather to shape Future Earth

---

More than seventy participants from the global environmental change (GEC) community met at UNESCO (Paris) on 28-29 November to discuss the initial design of Future Earth, and how they could contribute to the initiative. Representatives of all GEC Programmes (Diversitas, IHDP, IGBP and WCRP and their partnership ESSP) and the majority of their core projects met members of the Transition Team, the advisory body in charge of the early design of Future Earth, and of the Future Earth Implementation Management Project Board, the body overseeing the early implementation phase of the initiative.
The meeting was interactive, combining plenary and breakout discussions, and there was a broad consensus on the proposed research framework and its three-theme structure, with requests to include missing elements, such as evolutionary genetics, and to further refine some others. Discussion of governance highlighted the need for a structure in which each project can find a place and new initiatives can emerge. Participants generally supported the top-level structure – a Governing Council advised by two Committees on Science and Engagement, with the support of a Secretariat. However there was concern that separate offices for each of the three research themes might not be the best way to ensure full integration of research.
On the second day, discussions focused on the transition to Future Earth. Project representatives raised concerns about the stability of funding in the short and medium-term, and asked the Alliance to formally invite the projects to join Future Earth, and to provide support to ensure that funding is not disrupted. Questions arose about how to engage users of research in defining research questions, and how to foster synergies across projects, for instance through clusters around specific themes. Additional break-out sessions on communications and data management generated recommendations for action in these areas.
The workshop highlighted how critical the engagement of the core community of researchers is to the success of Future Earth, and generated constructive recommendations for the implementation bodies. Participants also underlined the need for more opportunities to have scientific discussions across all projects and programme.

Follow this link to the event page on the ICSU website, containing documentation and most of the presentations from the meeting.

Future Earth presented at the AGU Fall Meeting

---

On 6 December, Future Earth was presented at a Town Hall event at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. Margaret Leinen, AGU President-elect, moderated the event. Diana Liverman, co-Chair of the Transition Team, Robert Watson, Peter Liss (Transition Team members), Maria Uhle (NSF and Belmont Forum representative) and Sarah Gille (WCRP Joint Scientific Committee member) presented the vision of the new initiative, its research framework and initial steps towards implementation.
In a lively debate, participants asked about the rationale for the integrated research framework. Some stressed the importance of engaging stakeholders at the outset to ensure success in co-design of research. Managing integrated data across different disciplines was seen as a key challenge for a research initiative of Future Earth’s scale, as was learning from successes and failures of previous programmes and activities. Participants also discussed concerns about and opportunities for funding. The Belmont Forum International Opportunity Funds (IOF) – open, flexible and competitive calls for integrated interdisciplinary projects such as those on coastal vulnerability, freshwater security (2012) as well as food security and e-infrastructures (2013, if adopted at the Forum's upcoming Delhi meeting in February) – were seen as one starting point for new interdisciplinary international research funding. This mechanism has the potential to be broadened to promote innovative Future Earth activities together with other key agencies at national, regional or global levels. However there was a consensus that in order to succeed Future Earth will need to tap a much broader portfolio of funding sources. Overall, the AGU community demonstrated that it was keen to be a part of this programme, and a key question was how scientists could engage with Future Earth. A series of planned consultations in 2013 is expected to develop this discussion.
 

Earth System Science Partnership begins transition to Future Earth

---

On 31 December 2012, the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) will close as the Global Environmental Change programmes begin the transition to Future Earth. For a decade, ESSP has been a crucial partnership binding together the four global environmental change programmes, IGBP, DIVERSITAS, IHDP and WCRP. Under the leadership of Rik Leemans (Chair) and Martin Rice (Director), ESSP has co-sponsored some of the most ground-breaking international global environmental change research projects of our time. In this time, ESSP has also demonstrated the need for a more integrated approach to Earth-system science and set the framework for how this could be achieved successfully.
All existing ESSP projects will continue under the lead of the Global Environmental Change programmes until they eventually transition into Future Earth. Future Earth acknowledges and applauds the work of ESSP and will build on its successes in the coming years.

Future Earth:  Next steps

---

As work on the initial design of Future Earth is close to completion, the main focus for 2013 will be on implementation. An Implementation Management Project Board has been set up which brings together members of the Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability with representatives of the Global Environmental Change programmes, Projects and Science Committees, under the Chair of Professor Jakob Rhyner (UNU) and Dr Steven Wilson (ICSU). Priorities of the Board include setting up the new structures which Future Earth needs and ensuring a smooth transition to Future Earth. Part of the recent meeting with Global Environmental Change projects in Paris was devoted to these issues, and highlights included a strong desire to participate in Future Earth, as well as the need to secure and grow the funding base. As one element of the funding base, Belmont Forum and IGFA members seek to facilitate the financial transition in this complex landscape of funders during 2013-2014 for the GEC programmes and projects, as well as the Future Earth secretariat, in part by co-organising meetings of key funding players at the national and regional levels. Mapping the present or recent funding support received by GEC programmes and projects has been identified as a priority during the November GEC meeting in Paris. The upcoming Belmont Forum meeting in Delhi in February will discuss how to implement these actions.

Vacancy: Future Earth Interim Director

---