Concerns about changes in the world's environment have led scientists from many different nations to collaborate on a broad range of research and training activities. Many of these activities are coordinated by one or more of major international organizations, including the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), which is overseen by the World Meteorological Organization; the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which is overseen by the International Council of Science (ICSU); and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is overseen by the International Council of Science (ICSU) with cooperation from the International Social Science Council (ISSC). The IHDP aims to provide international leadership in framing, developing, and integrating social science research on global environmental change and to promote the application of the key findings of this research. IHDP's activities focus on development of themes for focused research and long-term collaborative efforts. It addresses critical gaps in international research on global change, including (1) the gap in contributions of the social, economic and cognitive sciences; (2) the gap in capacity for international and interdisciplinary collaboration in the area; and (3) the lack of coherent long-term research strategies for policy-relevant research topics and enhanced science-policy interaction. This award will provide support for the IHDP Secretariat, which coordinates IHDP at the United National University in Bonn, Germany. The IHDP Secretariat facilitates IHDP's Programme and implements the strategic priorities. Its core functions encompass coordination of research activities, capacity building, organization of major events and policy dialogues, and dissemination of outcomes and results of IHDP activities. Core support for the IHDP and its Secretariat is provided by NSF on behalf of agencies participating in the multi-agency U.S. Climate Change Research Program.
Through support of the IHDP, a solid investment is made in the infrastructure that fosters broader and deeper international, interdisciplinary collaborative networks. This further strengthens scientific inquiry across a range of topics and projects, thereby helping to enhance fundamental knowledge about very important topics and issues. Through its capacity-building activities, especially support for activities that education and involve more scientists from developing nations, the IHDP also facilitates a strengthening and diversification of the international scientific workforce.
The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) provides international leadership in framing, developing and integrating social science research on global environmental change and promotes the application of the key findings to help address environmental challenges. Leading social science research on global change Human actions lie at the heart of current global environmental changes. Societies transform their environment with only a limited and biased understanding of it. To assess the changes and to respond effectively requires major inputs from the social sciences with the perspective of human behavior and human actions. IHDP provides a platform to integrate research findings, innovations and insights from across the social sciences into the global effort to mitigate and adapt to environmental change. Our research projects focus on aspects like green economy, governance or urbanization. We foster original research, establish thematic groundwork and stimulate international, interdisciplinary teams of scientists to focus on these social issues. Their long-term collaborative research results are synthesized to contribute to informed decision-making efforts and to provide input to the development of further research. IHDP was established in 1996 and has three institutional sponsors: the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the International Council for Science (ICSU) and, since 2007, United Nations University (UNU). From the beginning and throughout its existence, NSF has contributed significantly to the establishment and successful development of the Programme. Currently, IHDP runs nine Science Projects that cover cross-cutting themes and address global challenges such as water security, global environmental governance, land use and cover changes, risk management, human health and carbon emissions. Common to all is their holistic perspective on coupled social-ecological systems. The IHDP projects are dynamic initiatives and the structure of IHDP’s portfolio is thus changing constantly. The most up-to-date version of the current IHDP portfolio is described in more detail on the IHDP website (www.ihdp.org). IHDP’s rich scientific portfolio has led to numerous research findings and publications, capacity-development and networking events and conferences within the last three years. For a more detailed overview of our activities, please refer to the IHDP Annual Reports published on-line. The IHDP Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, serves the programme as a whole and plays a key role in the development, implementation and evaluation of the programme’s overall goals. It acts as the central hub between all parts of the network and adds value by strengthening the voice and impact of an extensive network of individual scientists and research initiatives. The Secretariat also lobbies for the social sciences, organizes capacity-development activities and events and develops ties to the policymaker community. In the last three years the flagship activities were: initiation, with UNEP, of an Inclusive Wealth Report that aims at measuring countries’ economic development taking into account all forms of capital, i.e. natural, social, human and economic, and thus provides an alternative indicator to e.g. the GDP (www.ihdp.unu.edu/article/read/iwr) . organization of a major Conference on Human dimensions of global environmental Change in 2009: the 7th IHDP Open Meeting that brought together over 1,000 participants to discuss on "Social Challenges of Global Change", conduction of big regional training workshops in Asia and numerous seminars, lectures, public events; to educate future generations of scientists and decision-makers as well as to inform general public about the social aspects of sustainability challenge, publication of Science Projects’ results in the form of electronic and printed articles, reports and summaries targeting policy- and decision- makers, fostering the crucial dialogue between them and researchers, participation in international processes including among others: Assessment Report, International Panel on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Building the capacities in the Global South and fostering international, regional and global interaction between scientists trough establishment of IHDP National Committees and Visiting Scholar program. Summarizing, IHDP's core desire for the last 15 years was to produce the most innovative and state-of-the art social science, in order to foster improved human-environment interaction. Our mission is fourfold; activities in each aspect support the success of the overall goal. First, we catalyze the generation of social science research. We collaborate with both natural and social sciences, and contribute to interdisciplinary interaction. We strengthen the capacities of research and policy communities. Finally, we facilitate dialogue between science and policy, including decision-makers of all kinds, to ensure that our research results feed into informed choices and actions. If you are interested in learning more about IHDP or would like to join our network, please visit our website: www.ihdp.org, sign up for our newsletter The Networker or contact us via e-mail at secretariat@ihdp.unu.edu.
