Partial support for the 2010/11 to 2011/12 core budget of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research

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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.