Current Developments in Environmental Research Funding
A report for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
prepared by
Peter Borrell B.Sc.(Birm.), Ph.D., Sc.D.(Cantab.), C.Chem., F.R.S.C., F.R.S.A.
P&PMB Consultants
Ehrwalder Straße 9, D-82467 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Contents
1. Summary
2. Introduction
3. The survey conducted
4. How is environmental research being funded and organised in countries other than Sweden?
5. Some conclusions and comments
6. Acknowledgements
Appendices
A. Correspondents providing information for the report
B. Some useful reports
C. Some web pages consulted
D. Further information gleaned from the reports to the IGFA, 1999
E. Lessons learned in the co-ordination of a large environmental project
November 1999
1. Summary
A survey has been conducted of the trends in environmental research funding and organisation in twelve countries and the EU. Some additional information, obtained from the recent IGFA meeting in Beijing, is also given for a further seven countries. Some conclusions are drawn and comments made on the types of project supported and their co-ordination, the inclusion of research on economic and social consequences, new areas of research required to support sustainable development, on current funding levels and on whether the current emphasis is on basic or applied research.
In general:
2. Introduction
The Swedish Government has commissioned a report on Research and Development for a Sustainable Environment 1998 from twelve Swedish funding agencies. The report, which is an update of a corresponding one issued in 1996, seeks to define the areas of research and scientific understanding that will be required to underpin an ecologically sound policy necessary for so-called sustainable development in Sweden, Scandinavia, Europe and indeed the world. Seven areas are chosen:
Knowledge for Sustainability
Sustainable Land Use
Sustainable Coastal Waters
Sustainable Towns and Cities
A Sustainable Energy System
A Sustainable Transport System
Sustainable Production and Consumption
For each, the critical problems and research and development issues are identified, the current state of knowledge and available research capacity are assessed, a comparison is made with the 1996 report and the methods of implementation are outlined.
The report as a whole appears to be a further step along the path away from a crisismanagement approach, in which agencies simply respond to the latest environmental threat, towards an approach based on environmental understanding, in which the regulatory authorities attempt to develop responsible environmental policies that will try to eliminate or minimise any deleterious effects on the environment.
With respect to the research required to support sustainable policies, the question arises of how best to organise and fund it. In the past, when responding to particular situations, individual experts or groups were commissioned to advise on the issue in hand and, if necessary, to carry out some studies to test and support their conclusions. However the problems in sustainability are long term, are usually inter-disciplinary, and often international. The work involved is thus likely to be beyond the capability of a single research group and, in some cases, the resources available to a large national group of workers can be insufficient to tackle problems within an international region.
Modern approaches should of course take into account not only the mechanisms and physical effects but also the economic, social and political consequences; minimising environmental degradation is not only a technical matter; it often costs a great deal and has ramifications throughout the community. So the research efforts should be truly inter-disciplinary. However, as will be seen, the intermingling of work in the natural and social sciences is not proving to be straightforward. Also much of the success of inter-disciplinary work lies in the quality of the co-ordination but how to achieve effective co-ordination is a further question.
These points are well taken into account in the report, but the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency wished to include some information on the way in which other countries are approaching the commissioning of such research and, if possible, to learn something from the wider experience. The consultants were asked to try to obtain such information and the present report is the result.
3. The survey conducted
The survey was conducted by contacting one or more individuals in each of a number of countries. The people concerned, listed in appendix A, ranged from senior administrators in funding agencies to senior scientists. Most are concerned with projects in the atmospheric environment and some have responsibilities for a wider range of issues. However environmental research is often conducted by a variety of agencies so the replies can only give an indication of the current situation in a particular area and agency and may well not be representative for a country as a whole.
The following questions were put to each correspondent.
* Is environmental research in your country being funded by
- supporting individual investigators, or
- or supporting larger projects involving a number of investigators with some co-ordination being provided by the investigators or by the agency,
- or are other methods used?
* Are the economic and social consequences for the environment being included and, if so, how they are integrated with the scientific side?
* What new science areas would be involved if there is a switch from environmental research to research for a sustainable society?
* Is the funding of environmental research, increasing or decreasing?
* Is more emphasis being given to applied environmental research rather than basic research?
Some information was also obtained from government reports or brochures, appendix B, and some from agencies' web pages, appendix C.
Finally your consultant was also kindly provided with the discussion papers produced by some countries for the recent meeting in Beijing of the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA). The content of these dealt principally with global change research and the questions addressed were not those dealt with in this paper. Nevertheless, some useful information was obtained. Where appropriate it is included in the next section which summarises the replies from correspondents in a number of countries. The data for the other countries is included in Appendix D.
4. How is environmental research being funded and organised in countries other than Sweden?
In this section summaries of the replies are given in country order. In section 5 an attempt is made to generalise the results; a number of specific comments are reported and some suggestions are made about co-ordination.
Note. The following information was largely provided by private correspondents within the countries shown, Appendix A. It is therefore not "official information" but the personal impression of the correspondent as interpreted by the consultant. While the following appears to show the policies of the various countries, nearly all of it refers to just one agency within the respective country and, indeed in some cases, to just one part of an agency.
Austria
Project type and co-ordination
Mainly individual projects but the support of larger projects has increased over the last ten years. Environmental research is supported by a number of mainly federal agencies and other research funds.
Economic and social consequences
There a few projects that combine socio-economic research with the natural sciences, and some that run parallel natural science and social science investigations into aspects of the same topic. There is a move towards trying a more integrative approach with projects involving both natural and social science contributions, but there are some doubts about its usefulness and some fears among the natural scientists about a loss of funding.
The Austrian report to the IGFA mentions that particular importance is being given to multi-disciplinary approaches in global change.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
Suggestions include system studies (how systems etc. are organised); "future studies" and complexity research.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Funding is increasing but partly because more topics have been moved under the environmental umbella, bringing their previous funding with them.
Emphasis within research
The emphasis in the research funding agency is moving a little towards applied work but the preponderance is still on basic studies. Work funded by ministries and local government is mostly applied.
oOo
Belgium
Project type and co-ordination
The Federal Government prefers problem-oriented programmes which offer added value in comparison with individual projects. Co-ordination of the projects is carried out by the leader of one of the participating teams; co-ordination of the programme is carried out by the programme managers.
One method tried for assimilating results was to assemble investigators for a few days. At the start a skeleton of the expected report was produced and tasks distributed. The investigators then separated to write sections of the report and further meetings were held to produce the final product. In this way people were encouraged to work together. It is also a good way to produce proposals for multi-disciplinary projects.
Economic and social consequences
The inclusion of social scientists is sought by requesting proposals, but their inclusion is difficult to achieve. It is perhaps best done by the having projects with emphasis either on the natural or the social sciences, with a task force to bring the results together.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
There are new composite programmes such as "transport and mobility", "norms and standards" etc.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Difficult to discern a trend at the moment as the new minister has yet to decide on future activities and programmes
Emphasis within research
The distinction between "basic" and "applied" is seen as a false one. What is needed is problem-oriented research supported by a long term fundamental effort.
oOo
European Commission (EC)
Project type and co-ordination
The Commission supports multi-national and inter-disciplinary projects. Co-ordination is carried out by one of the participating institutions .
In atmospheric chemistry, some co-ordination is carried out by the EU itself through a clustering of related projects and appointing a rapporteur for each cluster to be responsible for holding meetings and synthesising the results.
Economic and social consequences
The inclusion of economic and social consequences is specifically encouraged in the Framework 4 programme.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
The changes are those for the environmental research components of the Framework 4 and Framework 5 programmes.
Emphasis within research
In atmospheric chemistry the areas of research are chosen after looking at the key environmental and scientific questions.
oOo
Finland
Project type and co-ordination
Both individual and large projects are supported but there is a trend towards large projects.
Economic and social consequences
The Academy and the TEKES (Technology Development Centre) both encourage social and economic linkages and include them where possible; but, for the Academy, this does not appear to play a strong role in project selection in comparison, say, with research quality or participation in EU projects.
The Biodiversity Programme, reported to the IGFA, has economic, legal and social aspects within the research programme.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
Economic and social science aspects, but preferably with a different approach to that presently employed.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Funding is increasing, some of the impetus being provided by the awareness of large environmental problems in the neighbouring countries.
Emphasis within research
This depends on the agency. The Academy emphasises basic research, TEKES applied; but the distinction is not pressed too far and the arrangement appears to work well. Success in funding is often judged by the participation in EU and other international programmes.
oOo
Germany (BMBF)
Project type and co-ordination
Mainly co-ordinated projects. The extent of co-ordination depends on the state of knowledge in the field.
For example, there are many features of atmospheric aerosols that are poorly understood, scientifically. The grants in the AFS programme are made largely to individuals although there are regular workshops to review the new findings and plan future work. With tropospheric ozone on the other hand which is better understood (TFS programme), there is a strongly co-ordinated programme with closely defined objectives.
However, in the new atmospheric research programme, the emphasis is shifting back towards more basic work. This is part of a move towards a broader approach based on sustainable development with a goal of elucidating how natural systems work, and hence of understanding natural variation.
Co-ordination is essential in large projects but it is costly, with the expenses always deducted from the amount available for the research. The costs must always be weighed carefully against the added value that co-ordination undoubtedly gives in large projects.
Co-ordination is best carried out by a respected scientist who enjoys the confidence of the community. Co-ordination by the ministry is not liked.
Economic and social consequences
The trend is towards the inclusion of effects and the new broader approach necessarily includes the economic, social, psychological and political consequences.
However the efforts so far have shown that while the inclusion of social aspects in a scientific programme sounds most desirable, it is very difficult to implement.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
As mentioned above the emphasis is on the inclusion of the social sciences within environmental projects, if possible.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Funding levels have improved and are increasing, but they compete for funding with projects aimed at job creation. However there is a move towards increasing funding for research and for education in order to improve the long term prospects for employment.
Emphasis within research
The emphasis within the BMBF is on applied research but there is a clear understanding that basic work is necessary in many environmental areas.
oOo
Greece
Project type and co-ordination
National funds are mainly for single investigators, but use is made of the European Union Cohesion Funds for working in larger groups.
Economic and social consequences
These are not included in the national programmes at the moment.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
Not foreseen at the moment
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Increasing thanks to participation in EU projects.
Emphasis within research
Applied research is being preferred.
oOo
Netherlands
Project type and co-ordination
Environmental research is supported by a variety of funding agencies. Within large environmental programmes both co-ordinated projects and individual research may be funded. There is also some private funding of long term research.
Economic and social consequences
The economic and social consequences are increasingly taken into consideration and there are a number of projects which combine both social and natural sciences within a project. However, with such a difference in approach and language, the combination is difficult. It is important that the communities are brought together at the very start of a project.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
The Sustainable Technology Research foresight programme (DTO) has used a novel approach for research planning, applying the method of back-casting to identify science and technology paths to sustainable technology development. Taking as a point of departure the year 2040, and requiring that technology should then have led to a twenty fold decrease in the use of natural resources and a twenty fold decrease in pollution, the following questions were asked: what are the critical technologies, and what breakthroughs are necessary; how can these be achieved with today as a starting point; and (very important for industrial involvement) what intermediate products can be developed along the track to sustainability? These questions were asked for specific 'example fields' such as chemistry, transport, housing, water.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Funding is approximately constant, although it is difficult to be precise as much environmental research is conducted by institutions that are not counted as "environmental".
Emphasis within research
The emphasis in environmental sciences has always been on applications. Over the years an inter-disciplinary research base has been built up and now there is an increased focus on basic research.
oOo
Portugal
Project type and co-ordination.
In the past individual investigators were funded but there are more larger projects with several investigators being funded. The co-ordination is provided by the investigators themselves.
Economic and social consequences
New funding programmes try to include the economic and social consequences. There is also specific funding for economic environmental research.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
Regional development, rural studies, desertification, effects on health and ecosystems
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Funds are less for environmental research, but there are increases for technological areas, which often include environmental aspects.
Emphasis within research
More emphasis on applied research.
oOo
Switzerland
Project type and co-ordination
Both individual investigations and large projects are important but the trend is towards larger programmes. There are two types of programmes: national research programmes and national thematic programmes
Co-ordination is either via a central office or by local focal points and agencies. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used.
Economic and social consequences
There is a strong trend towards the inclusion of economic and social aspects in environmental research, with a number of programmes mainly focussed on these at the moment. "Trans-disciplinary" research is "en-vogue" at the moment.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
A shift from environmental research towards research for a sustainable society has been suggested. A report with an overall concept exists (Schweitzerischer Wissenschaftsrat, 1998).
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Approximately constant.
Emphasis within research
Applied research is becoming more important but basic research is still strong.
oOo
United Kingdom
Natural Environmental Research Council
Project type and co-ordination
Both individual and project work is funded, in both the "thematic" and the "core" areas. Recent large co-ordinated projects in the atmosphere include ACSOE (atmospheric chemistry studies of the oceanic environment) and the Global Atmospheres project which were funded from both the thematic and core funds.
Individual research projects are regarded as essential in an agency responsible for maintaining the national presence in this area.
Economic and social consequences
There is external pressure to include social sciences where appropriate but the quality of individual applications is the important thing. A study is presently being carried out on the impact of the atmospheric sciences on government and industrial activities in the UK. The NERC strategy document (1998) devotes a whole page to the need for a new breed of scientists, prepared to breach the barriers between the natural sciences themselves and between the natural and social sciences.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
This issue is presently under discussion. In a discussion of research strategy, the NERC web page (www.nerc.ac.uk/science/strategy/) speaks of supporting new approaches and also longer-term, larger collaborative and inter-disciplinary research.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
There are some increases but at present only 25% of the good applications are funded.
Emphasis within research
There is outside pressure to support "relevant" research but, as already mentioned, the remit of the NERC is to sustain the long-term research potential in the UK.
oOo
Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR)
Project type and co-ordination
Research Programmes are planned and procured by research managers within policy divisions. The Department's Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies support their own policy and operational responsibilities either by commissioning their own research or through participation in the relevant departmental programmes. Co-ordination within the programmes is an inherent requirement given the objective of serving the policy processes with necessary science engineering and technology evidence. Research managers are further required to link with relevant research across departments, with the national research base and with international programmes.
Economic and social consequences
The research programmes include work on the social and economic consequences of their policy areas if there is a policy-driven requirement. In policy areas where the natural sciences, engineering and technology have been the main suppliers of evidence, increasing emphasis is being given to the potential contribution from the social and economic sciences.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
See web site (Appendic C): 'The DETR Research Strategy 1999-2002'
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
There are some increases, but funding levels are driven primarily by the need for evidence.
Emphasis within research
The research strategy is driven by the policy objectives and is therefore always 'specific applied'. Within this category however, a number of programmes sponsor research which could be regarded either as "basic" or as "applied".
oOo
United States
Project type and co-ordination
Both individual and larger projects are funded, with a tendency towards funding projects involving several groups. The EPA is a major partner in NARSTO (North American Strategy for Ozone), a three nation co-ordinated project involving all the major stakeholders (industry, public utilities, government and state agencies). In the past the EPA was a partner in the Southern Oxidants Study, a large co-ordinated programme studying air pollution in the south eastern United States.
In global change (US report to the IGFA) both co-ordinated and individual research is supported by a number of agencies, with a trend towards inter-disciplinary research in some. Many programmes include Federal, State and industrial participation.
Economic and social consequences
These are the driving force for environmental research. The strategic principles of Ecological Research Strategy suggest that the consequences are largely taken account through the political connections (Appendix B: EPA, 1998, section 2.4).
The US report to the IGFA indicates that effects seem to be included in most global change programmes.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
The trend is towards "cross-media"; i.e. air/water, land/water, air/land interfaces, so as to try to encompass interactions and feedback across the interface. A holistic approach is being taken (for example: "one atmosphere") so that interactions between different problems and their solutions are appreciated and taken into account.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Not clear at the moment.
Emphasis within research
Funding is usually only granted if a direct or an indirect application can be demonstrated. This also seems to be true for "basic" funding agencies such as the NSF as well.
oOo
5. Some conclusions and comments
Some of the following points are deduced from the answers in section 4; some result from comments made by the various correspondents and some are the opinion of the consultant.
Project type
One correspondent pointed to two approaches to interdisciplinary research: the minimal in which the results from a set of individual research projects are integrated and assimilated; the maximal where the co-production of "know-how" is aimed for in an overall project. She felt that the second is more difficult.
Co-ordination
- for fields in which the state of knowledge is low then, apart from defining the initial questions, the work can be left largely to individuals with co-ordination being confined to encouraging the work and to reviewing the results to ensure that they are assimilated and the advances in understanding fully appreciated and disseminated;
- for fields that are further advanced more specific questions can be posed and more detailed co-ordination is required to ensure that the goals are reached.
Assimilation of the results and understanding
The method tried by one correspondent of getting the investigators and rapporteurs together for several days in order to produce, at the meeting, a written report on the research done or a research proposal is interesting for a field in the state of development.
Economic and social consequences
However, as several correspondents pointed out, this is "very difficult" to achieve, one pointing simply to problems of communication caused by the large differences in language and approach between the social and natural sciences. Another suggested that there are some doubts, both among administrators and the natural scientists, about its feasibility and usefulness and some fears among the natural scientists about a loss of funding. There may also be unrealistic expectations about what the social sciences can contribute in some cases. One document (Appendix B: NERC, 1998) suggests that a new breed of scientists is needed to breach the barriers between the natural sciences themselves, and between the natural and social sciences.
The Swiss National Science Foundation has published conditions (www.snf.ch/SPP_Umwelt/SPPE_transdisciplinarity.htm) that "transdisciplinary" research should satisfy.
|
scientific work |
à |
scientific model |
ó |
economic model |
à |
consequences |
The present approach is to use larger scientific projects to develop and refine scientific models which can be used to study the likely environmental consequences of proposed actions. Economic models use the output to predict the possible financial outcome and then perhaps some predictions are made of the social consequences. This is the approach used in the RAINS model, developed by IIASA (www.iiasa.ac.at/~amann), to study air pollution and used by the EC in their development of the latest strategies for ozone and other tropospheric pollutants. The overall process then splits naturally into a scientific part to produce the models and an economic and social part to elucidate the consequences. However the only feedback is from the economic to the scientific model in order to explore differing scenarios.
To integrate the social and natural sciences together in such a project, there must be worthwhile feedback between the social and scientific parts, and it is this aspect that is considered to be difficult to achieve in a meaningful way. Fig. 1 is a diagram from the Belgian IGFA submission. It indicates the further complexity of the process being discussed that is missed in the simplified diagram above.
New areas of research required for sustainable development
However as mentioned in the introduction, the general move is away from environmental problems and towards environmental management for sustainable development. As the US-EPA document (1998; Appendix B) points out, environmental problems cannot be solved; they must be managed interactively. The same document illustrates the complexity of the management with an example based upon Rubik's cube; when properly arranged one has a coherent picture and a response, but when one or two pieces are rearranged, a muddled picture emerges.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
|
1985 |
1990 |
1996 |
|
|
Belgium |
9 |
7.1 |
8.9 |
|
Denmark |
10.2 |
12.8 |
17.1 |
|
Germany |
10.6 |
11.9 |
11.5 |
|
France |
8.3 |
6.1 |
8.9 |
|
Italy |
7.9 |
15.9 |
15.4 |
|
Japan |
4.8 |
5.2 |
6.6 |
|
Netherlands |
9.2 |
8.1 |
8.2 |
|
Norway |
17.4 |
15.9 |
18.8 |
|
UK |
8.0 |
12.3 |
20 |
|
USA |
13.9 |
16.3 |
20.4 |
|
Sweden |
8.9 |
10.7 |
10 |
Source: OECD (kindly provided by Dr. John Marks)
Emphasis within research
Several correspondents noted the necessity to support shorter term applied work with longer term fundamental work. Indeed in several countries with a longer record of environmental research the need for basic research is being stressed.
People appear to feel that, despite the growth in understanding in the past few years, the environment still has the capacity to spring nasty surprises and it is essential to have a viable infrastructure of expertise to deal with the unexpected, and to try where at all possible to anticipate it.
6. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the correspondents, listed in Appendix A, for sparing the time not only to answer the questions but for providing many insights into the difficult problem of funding research to obtain results. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Kirsten.Broch-Mathisen for letting me have the summaries prepared by several of the contributing countries to the recent IGFA meeting in Beijing, and Dr. Erik Fellenius for encouraging me to look into this problem.
Appendices
Appendix A. Correspondents providing information for the report
The following people kindly responded to the enquiry, or provided other helpful information.
|
Correspondent |
Affiliation |
Other correspondents in the country |
|
Dr. Giovanni Angeletti |
EC (DG-XII), Brussels |
|
|
Dr. Alan Apling |
DETR, United Kingdom |
Mr. David Warrilow, DETR |
|
Dr. Kirsten Broch-Mathisen |
Research Council of Norway, Chairman, IGFA |
|
|
Prof. Carlos Borrego |
University of Aveiro, Portugal |
|
|
Dr. Paul Filliger |
BUWAL, Berne, Switzerland |
Prof. Hans Richner, |
|
Dr. Gerhard Hahn |
BMBF, Bonn, Germany |
|
|
Prof. Sylvain Joffre |
Finnish Meteorological Office |
|
|
Dr. John Marks |
NWO, Netherlands |
Dr. Dick van Hout, RIVM, NL Prof. Peter Builtjes, TNO, NL |
|
Prof. Nicolas Moussiopoulos |
Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece |
|
|
Dr. Rudolf Orthofer |
Seibersdorf Research Centre, |
|
|
Prof. Michael Pilling |
Leeds University, UK; |
Dr. Nigel Collins, NERC, UK |
|
Dr. Kenneth Schere |
Environmental Protection |
Dr. Bill Russo, Office of Science Policy, EPA |
|
Ms. Martine Vanderstraeten |
Federal Service for Scientific, Technological and Cultural Affairs, Belgium |
Appendix B. Some useful reports
Kindly provided by the correspondents.
Academy of Finland, 1998, Finnish Research Programme on Environment and Health 1998 - 2001, Helsinki, Finland
Academy of Finland, 1999, FIBRE: Biodiversity Research Programme, Helsinki, Finland
Academy of Finland, 1999, FIGARE: Global Change Research Programme, Helsinki, Finland
Keating, M., 1998, Agenda für Eine Nachhaltige Entwicklung, Bundesamt für Umwelt, Wald und Landschaft (BUWAL), Berne, Switzerland.
Natural Environment Research Council, 1998, Looking Forward; the NERC Strategy for Science, NERC, Swindon, United Kingdom
Schweitzerischer Wissenschaftsrat, 1998, Konzept: Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung, Berne, Switzerland.
Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape, 1999, Master Plan for Environmental Research, 2000 - 2003, Bundesamt für Umwelt, Wald und Landschaft (BUWAL), Berne, Switzerland
United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1998, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Programme: Ecological Research Strategy, US EPA, Washington.
Appendix C. Some web pages consulted
|
European Union |
||
|
Community Research & Development Information Service, CORDIS |
www.cordis.lu/ |
|
|
Framework 5 programme |
www.cordis.lu/fp5/home.html |
|
|
European Union |
www.europa.eu.int/ |
|
|
Finland |
||
|
Finnish Global Research Programme (FIGARE) |
figare.utu.fi/welcome.html |
|
|
Finnish Biodiversity Research Home Page (FIBRE) |
fibre.utu.fi/ |
|
|
Germany |
||
|
BMBF Project Management |
www.gsf.de/ptukf/english.html |
|
|
Tropospheric Research Programme |
www.gsf.de/ptukf/tfseng.html |
|
|
Greece |
||
|
General Secretariat for Science and Technology (GRST) |
www.gsrt.gr/html/engl/gsrt_main.htm |
|
|
Hellenic Ministry for Environmental Physical Planning and Public Works |
www.minenv.gr/welcome_en.html |
|
|
Netherlands |
||
|
Global Climate Change Research Programme |
www.nop.nl/main.html |
|
|
The Advisory Council for Research on Nature and Environment (RMNO) |
www.xs4all.nl/~rmno/ukindex.htm |
|
|
Advisory Council for Research on Natural Sciences and the Environment (NRLO) |
www.agro.nl/nrlo/english/nrint2pg.shtml |
|
|
Advisory Council on Science and Technology Policy (AWT) |
www.awt.nl/Welcomeuk.html |
|
|
Portugal |
||
|
FCT Evaluation of Portuguese Research - 1999 |
www.fct.mct.pt/unidades/avproj/en/ |
|
|
Switzerland |
||
|
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) |
www.snf.ch/ |
|
|
Swiss Priority Programme Environment |
www.snf.ch/SPP_Umwelt/Overview.html |
|
|
Swiss Priority Programme Environment - Transdisciplinarity |
www.snf.ch/SPP_Umwelt/Þ
|
|
|
United Kingdom |
||
|
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) |
www.nerc.ac.uk |
|
|
NERC: science strategy |
www.nerc.ac.uk/science/strategy/ |
|
|
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) |
www.environment.detr.gov.uk |
|
|
DETR research programme |
www.research.detr.gov.uk/res_prog. |
|
|
United States |
||
|
Environmental Protection Agency Research Strategies and Plans |
www.epa.gov/epahome/resstrat.htm |
|
|
Office of Research and Development (ORD) Science Network |
www.epa.gov/ORD/ |
Appendix D Further information gleaned from the reports to the IGFA, 1999
The following information was obtained from the discussion papers produced by some countries for the recent IGFA meeting in Beijing (The IGFA is the international group of funding agencies for global change research). The content dealt principally with global change research and the questions addressed were not those dealt with in this paper. Nevertheless, some useful information was obtained. Where appropriate it is included in section 5 above, which summarises the replies from correspondents in a number of countries. The data for the other countries where there was no correspondent is given here
Canada (from the Canadian report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
A variety of approaches (individual and project research) to global change research within a number of funding agencies. Major collaborative activities are mostly supported by multi-disciplinary funding.
Economic and social consequences
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council are funding some research co-ordination.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Approximately constant. Partial funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a project office.
Emphasis within research
Mainly applied.
oOo
China (from the Chinese report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
Global change is priority field
Economic and social consequences
The fields mentioned are mainly scientific.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Levels greatly increased
oOo
France (from the French report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
Large global change projects with funding for both individual investigators and for co-ordinated groups.
Economic and social consequences
Impacts and social consequences are included.
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
Decreased earlier but now level.
oOo
Iceland (from the Icelandic report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
Global change projects are usually international via the EU and Nordic Co-operation for example
Economic and social consequences
Multi-disciplinary approaches are desired but limited by resources.
Emphasis within research
Applied
oOo
Japan (from the Japanese report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
In global change research, basic science related to international research programmes is supported
Economic and social consequences
These are being taken into account in the JSPS-Future programme
Emphasis within research
Basic science
oOo
Norway (from the Norwegian report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
Global change research organised in large thematic programmes
Economic and social consequences
Multi-disciplinary approaches are encouraged.
oOo
Taiwan (from the Taiwanese report to the IGFA)
Project type and co-ordination
Large global change projects conducted by a number of agencies
Economic and social consequences
Social and economic consequences are included
Funding levels: increasing or decreasing?
increasing
Emphasis within research
Applied, partly hazard driven.
oOo
Appendix E. Lessons learned in the co-ordination of a large environmental project
Here some information is given about the experience gained in the co-ordination of a large European environmental project, EUROTRAC, taken from volume 1 of the ten-volume final report (Borrell, 2000).
EUROTRAC, the European Experiment on Transport and Transformation of Environmentally Relevant Trace Constituents in the Troposphere over Europe was a European scientific research programme within the EUREKA framework. EUROTRAC began work in 1986 and finished at the end of 1995. At its peak the programme included more than 250 research groups from 24 European countries and its budget exceeded 16 million ECU per year. It was set up in the perspective of an increasing awareness of the effects of air pollution on European ecosystems. A second phase of the project was started in July 1996 and is scheduled to run until 2002.
The co-ordination was at two levels.
Some lessons learned from EUROTRAC
Encouraging the scientists themselves to define the scientific problems to be studied and to set the practical goals to be achieved proved to be a powerful way to motivate the whole project. In this way everyone is a true participant and responsible for working out their own ideas.
The possible disadvantage in a long-term project is the potential lack of flexibility in responding to new issues. However the formation of working groups to tackle particular problems and the Application Project itself demonstrated how flexibility could be achieved.
An important ingredient for the successful conclusion of the project is the quality of the subproject coordinators and steering group members, on whom the principal burden of work falls. Most of the co-ordination was done as part of the subproject coordinator's normal scientific and administrative work and most received little extra payment, either cash or kind, for what they did.
The central secretariat was necessary to ensure that the work flowed smoothly and on time. It is essential that everyone within the project is clear about their role and their responsibility, and so feels part of the project. It is important that everyone sees that his or her contribution is appreciated and evaluated; the annual and final reports were particularly important in this context. This is particularly true in a project where each principal investigator obtains his or her own funds; the whole could so easily have dissipated.
The founders of the project set much store in defining aims for the project as a whole, and general scientific objectives. These ensured that the project did not become diffuse, a particular danger in this area where there are so many issues which are related and which might be included.
They also insisted that the subprojects set realistic goals and instituted a review procedure to ensure that attention was paid to them. The annual reports from the principal investigators, reviewed by the subproject steering groups, and the annual reports from the subprojects, reviewed by the Scientific Steering Committee, together with the regular SSC reviews of progress kept everyone's concentration on fulfilling the promises made in the aims. The fixed time span of the project, long enough to achieve much, but not too long to allow everything to fossilise, was a help in itself.
Each principal investigator was expected to obtain funds for his or her own work and each country funded their own participants, apart from the few who obtaining direct support from the EC. The lack of synchronisation in the funding from some twenty countries certainly created appreciable difficulties for the detailed co-ordination of the work since the work of the subproject was strongly influenced by the vicissitudes in funding (timing and policy) in the participating countries. However it was noticeable that when a principal investigator was firmly committed to a project, he or she generally found a way to contribute, even in the face of adverse funding conditions, and so the subprojects prospered and met their goals.
However distributed funding had some marked advantages too. The funding in most countries is short-term, and the priorities change within a country as time progresses. In a long term project the effects, provided they are not too great, average out and it is still possible to achieve the goals. With a single funding source a change of priorities could kill a subproject, or indeed a project.
The principal advantage of distributed funding is that far more resources can be brought to bear on a problem that could ever be provided by one country alone. This includes the EC as well, which does not have limitless resources and has many claims upon them.
EUROTRAC provided a model of how to harness the resources, manpower, expertise and finance, for a group of European countries and apply them in a cost-effective way so as to provide a scientific basis for the solution of a difficult international environmental problem.
P. Borrell (ed.), 2000, Transport and Chemical Transformation of Pollutants in the Troposphere, an overview of the work of EUROTRAC, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.
Borrell, P., Ø. Hov, P. Grennfelt and P. Builtjes (eds); 1997; Photo-oxidants, Acidification and Tools: Policy Applications of EUROTRAC Results, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.