The Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change International Program Office

关于综合地球系统中人与自然组成部分之间复杂相互作用的研究突出表明，有必要了解人类的个人和集体的看法和行动，因为人既作为个人也作为群体和机构的成员运作。体制既是大规模环境变化的起因，也是通过直接应对和建立应对不断变化的环境条件的框架而发挥的突出作用。该奖项为国际项目办公室(IPO)的全球环境变化制度层面(IDGEC)项目提供了新的支持。IDGEC是国际全球环境变化计划(IHDP)的四个主要核心项目之一，IHDP是一个由国际科学联合会(ICSU)监督、国际社会科学理事会(ISSC)合作的国际合作研究计划。IDGEC试图了解机构在引起和面对一系列环境变化方面所发挥的作用。IDGEC为来自广泛国家的社会科学家开展的一系列合作研究活动提供了一个框架。该框架侧重于三组主要问题：(1)因果关系(生态系统状况的差异有多少可归因于人类机构？)；(2)绩效(为什么一些机构对环境问题的反应比其他机构更成功？)；(3)设计(机构应如何组织，以使其绩效最大化？)。IDGEC-IPO通过催化和协调追求共同研究议程的全球科学家网络，在这一研究项目的成功中发挥了关键作用。通过继续支持IPO，当前和未来围绕这一重要问题开展国际合作的基础设施将得到加强，美国将就重大国际合作努力的价值和效用向其他国家发出积极信号。

Research on the complex interactions among human and natural components of the integrated Earth system have highlighted the need to understand both individual and collective perceptions and actions of human beings, because people operate both as individuals and as members of groups and institutions. Institutions figure prominently both as causes of large-scale environmental changes and through direct response and through establishment of the frameworks of responses to changing environmental conditions. This award provides renewed support for the International Project Office (IPO) of the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC) project. IDGEC is one of four major core projects of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change Programme (IHDP), which is an international collaborative research program overseen by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), with cooperation from the International Social Science Council (ISSC). IDGEC seeks to understand the roles that institutions play in causing and confronting a range of environmental changes. IDGEC provides a framework for a series of collaborative research activities conducted by social scientists from a broad range of nations. That framework focuses on three major sets of issues: (1) Causality (How much of the variance in the condition of ecosystems is attributable to human institutions?); (2) Performance (Why are some institutional responses to environmental problems more successful than others?); and (3) Design (How should institutions be structured to maximize their performance?). The IDGEC-IPO plays a critical role in the success of this research project by catalyzing and coordinating a global network of scientists pursuing a common research agenda. Through continued support for the IPO, the infrastructure for the conduct of current and future international collaborations focusing on this important set of problems will be strengthened, and the U.S. will give a positive signal to other nations regarding the value and utility of major international collaborative efforts.