NSF Award
9905192
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 three major international organizations: 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 Scientific Unions (ICSU); and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which is overseen by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) with cooperation from the International Social Science Council (ISSC). Administrative coordination of IHDP activities is undertaken by the IHDP Secretariat, which functions at the University of Bonn under a major grant from the German Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF). This award is one of three collaborative awards that provide support for three sets of administrative activities to further IHDP programs: (1) support for the IHDP Secretariat's core budget to enable it to enhance and expand the involvement of new scientific activities, to build human dimensions of global change (HDGC) infrastructure in developing nations and transition economies, and to involve more researchers from developing nations and transition economies in IHDP activities; (2) support for the work of the Focus 1 office of the Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC) Project office at Indiana University, to enable it to promote and support research and networking activities associated with the Land-Use Dynamics comparative case-study analyses; and (3) support for the work of the International Project Office (IPO) of the International Dimensions of Global Environmental Change project at Dartmouth College. Through these activities, collaborative, interdisciplinary research on important topics dealing with human-environmental interaction around the globe are facilitated, as is the involvement of the scientists from many nations, especially those from developing nations who otherwise lack the resources to engage in these broad-ranging efforts. Core support for IHDP Secretariat activities is provided by NSF on behalf of the agencies participating in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), while additional support for the involvement of scientists from developing nations as well as support for the Focus 1 Office and the IDGCE-IPO is provided by the NSF Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.
