This grant provides partial support for the 2010/11 to 2011/12 core budget of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. The proposal has two objectives: 1) to maintain and strengthen the IAI?s operations which have been severely curtailed as a result of unpaid core-budget contributions, including significant shortfalls in the US, Mexican and Venezuelan contributions; and 2) to increase the policy relevance of ongoing IAI research networks by developing a scientific synthesis across these networks, and by using the synthesis process to develop a reliable science-policy interface that provides a lasting structure for a better integration of science with decision making across IAI member countries. The synthesis is conducted in collaboration between the IAI Directorate, investigators in the science networks and stakeholders in IAI global change science in the member countries. The process is accompanied with an assessment of these activities to identify best practices for future science initiatives. Expected outcomes are: 1) an improved integration of science output into policy and decision processes, including lasting organizational structures for the governance of global change science; 2) documentation of best practices to guide science programs to be initiated in 2011/12 with improved provisions for synthesis and policy integration from the proposal stage onwards; and 3) cross-project synthesis of science results and exchanges of technologies and methods between projects and regions to enhance the value of ongoing networks. As output we expect science digests for policy making, scientific papers that provide knowledge and insight into lessons emerging from across programs, regions and disciplines, and publications that describe and analyze approaches to the integration process and identify best practices. The intellectual merit of this proposal lies in the critical review and synthesis of scientific research carried out in current IAI networks since 2007: in the collaborative research networks, human dimensions projects, IDRC/Canada-funded La Plata Basin development research project, and the McArthur-funded assessment of biodiversity and climate change in the tropical Andes. The interdisciplinary analysis provides new insights into natural and coupled human-environmental processes that improve knowledge through inter-regional comparisons. It also makes science available for policy and decision making by involving the IAI political representations and civil society partners in the science synthesis. The evolving integration across the science-policy interface itself will be assessed by a research component that analyzes the processes. The assessment will be documented in publications on science governance for different policy sectors and decision makers.
Broader impact: By managing the science-policy engagement, a permanent partnership for science-policy interface is established that fulfils the IAI's mandate to manage research for informed decision making. This strengthens the IAI's role in global change research on the American continent, and involves the political bodies of the IAI by providing a broader, intensified science-policy dialogue with different sectors of society that should lead to improved policy-making on global change issues.
The IAI Directorate The Directorate's primary responsibilities are to promote and represent the Institute within the region and the rest of the world; develop and implement the Institute's long-range plans and strategies, implement financial policies, and monitor budgets. The evolution of IAI sponsored global change science and related activities has resulted in the inclusion of multiple disciplines in all research projects. The Directorate plays a crucial role in guiding and promoting such interdisciplinarity, which includes the human dimensions: social and economic sciences, outreach to non-scientific audiences and dialogue with policy and decision makers. In addition, coordination and collaboration among projects is guided by the Directorate to enrich the science dialogue and permit cross-program synthesis of results. The Directorate's capacity building activities aim at the integration of research and training in global change sciences and applications. Besides providing lectures and instruction, IAI researchers are also students at IAI training events. This double role is possible because of the unique space the IAI explores at the interface between different sciences and policy and decision making - where everyone has something to learn. The international character of those activities provides "take home" capacity building that enriches research groups and networks. Capacity building is not limited to human resources or to global change knowledge, but also aims at institutions. When signing the contracts and implementing international projects involving different institutions and management procedures, the Assistant Director for Finance and Administration provides advice and cooperates with the administration of research institutions, so that they can meet international management and accounting standards. Hundreds of research institutions in the Americas have improved capacities and knowledge on international grant management, accountability and interactions with other institutions in the Americas. In the past year, one of the central activities of the Directorate has been the synthesis of results of the Collaborative Research Network program (CRN) and its complement, the Small Grants Program for Human Dimensions (SGP-HD). Projects have received extensions to allow for a more comprehensive synthesis of the program and an analysis of the effects of science management on the development of interdisciplinarity. Three synthesis meetings were held, two of them in conjunction with IAI training institutes. One of these was also combined with a science-policy forum. The combination of events allowed taking advantage of expert knowledge and research findings to enrich training activities with new results and current analytical techniques. The IAI directorate participates in the technical advisory body of the UN climate change convention (UNFCCC), highlighting global change research findings of relevance to policy making and promoting the participation of IAI scientists in such fora to communicate in first person the relevance of their findings for policy decisions on global change. The relevance and excellence of IAI-funded research is shown in that one third of the South and Central American Regional panel for the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report are IAI scientists. The IPCC assessment is an effective means for disseminating IAI science findings. Two collaborative research projects have contributed to legislative and legal processes providing expertise on biodiversity and ecosystem services to the Province of Cordoba, Argentina, and to the federal Court of Brazil. This experience is used in the context of several projects that are currently integrating knowledge towards a more rational framework for the assessment and provision of ecosystem services, their dependence on biodiversity and resulting conservation needs. The assessment of capacities in the tropical Andean region to integrate knowledge and conduct research on the effect of climate on biodiversity concluded in 2011. Coordinated by the Directorate and with the participation of over 400 professionals from 183 institutions in twelve countries, the assessment involved 7 national meetings in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, 4 regional workshops and a science-policy forum. The two-year project funded by the MacArthur Foundation resulted in an e-book documenting the state of knowledge on biodiversity and climate change (a Spanish version will be printed). The project has issued several assessment reports and policy briefs. That successful assessment led the MacArthur Foundation to award a second grant to the IAI for biodiversity field research and data analysis along two ecological-altitudinal transects in Colombia-Ecuador and Bolivia-Peru. The IAI Directorate is linking this new project with SGP-HD 004 on the vulnerability of Andean communities to hydroclimatological variability and global environmental change. The IAI and its partner CIIFEN will combine the science, policy and outreach activities of both projects. Another outcome of the assessment project is the 'Regional information system on climate change and biodiversity in Andean countries' to be developed by CIIFEN and the ministries of the environment in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.
