Mission

 

 

Research on global change, its coordination efforts and why a coordinated European strategy is needed

Anthropogenic activities influence natural material and their fluxes within the Earth system. Large-scale environmental perturbations on Earth across continents and regions, termed global change, can have positive and/or negative impacts and feedbacks. With regard to climate change, one factor of global change, temperature and precipitation changes thus influence anthropogenic and ecological systems.

In order to provide solutions to the problems of global change, for instance by changing of humans’ behaviour or by developing adaptation strategies, knowledge is required on the basic functioning of systems as well as the interactions and feedbacks.

Research is carried out in many science disciplines, such as natural sciences (e.g. earth sciences, life sciences), social sciences (e.g. economics, cultural studies, geography), formal sciences (e.g. computer sciences) and humanities (e.g. ethics) in different ways (e.g. field studies, modeling, theoretical studies) to generate knowledge about specific topics/problems – and form a new piece of the global change puzzle. To coordinate all these actions on a global level, four international global change programs were established around 30 years ago with special focus on social sciences and science policy dialogue (IHDP), ecosystem interactions (IGBP), model development (WCRP) and coordination of research on biodiversity (DIVERSITAS).

To formulate a sustainable course of action in the view of global change, an entire picture of functions and feedbacks between nature and mankind is needed. To piece the puzzle together, the members of the international global change programs decided to launch an Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). The interest of this partnership is in the integration of interdisciplinary research approaches, with a principle focus on the development of interdisciplinary, integrative project concepts.

With a focus on global change and the foreseeable problems facing Europe, the European Alliance of Global Change Research Committees will identify urgent, but also preventative, research needs. To highlight possible courses of action for decision makers, the EA will develop research strategies within an interdisciplinary, integrative context. This action goes in line with the EU sustainable development strategy that aims for the continuous improvement of quality of life for current and future generations. Accordingly, the EA will give advice, for instance, to European funding bodies on global change issues, in particular to the European Commission as well as the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the coordinating lead organizations of Europe (e.g. COST, ERA-NET).

 

Aims of the European Alliance 

In order to develop a common research strategy at the European level the European Alliance aims to

  • develop visions of global change research strategies on a European level,
  • promote and support global change research on a European level,
  • provide a platform for an integrated approach to global change research linking the major international research programs WCRP, IGBP, DIVERSITAS, IHDP and ESSP.

 

Further, the European Alliance would like to

  • offer adivice to the European Commission and European scientific funding bodies in the context of global change research,
  • facilitate regional (supranational),integrative global change research projects,
  • foster European/international training programs on a regional level,
  • exchange information and experiences,
  • contribute to the development of research strategies and orientation of the four global change programs and ESSP,
  • improve linkages with other regional alliances and NCs outside Europe, such as AFRICANESS.