1. Aims of the joint call
Climate Services aim at providing more reliable climate information for the near future (months to decades) relevant for local and regional users. Within this broad context, variability of polar and tropical systems affects a large proportion of the world population.
This call aims to contribute to the overall challenge of developing climate services with a focus on inter-regional linkages role in climate variability and predictability. Major impediments indeed still exist having efficient climate services at regional and local level, because of little or poorly understood climate processes (in part caused by a paucity of observations), inadequate dissemination of scientific knowledge, conflicts between climatic and non-climatic stressors and lack of action by decision makers and the human society at large.
2. Target research field
Projects should address one or more of the following topics:
- Topic 1 - Understanding past and current variability and trends of regional extremes
- Topic 2 - Predictability and prediction skills for near-future variability and trends of regional extremes
- Topic 3 - Co-construction of near term forecast products with users
3. Participating countries
Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Norway, Qatar, Sweden, the Netherlands and United Kingdom
4. Eligibility
The following were eligible to receive support through this call:
- Persons affiliated with a domestic research organisation where they are able to conduct research
- Persons without a history of accounting irregularities which would restrict their eligibility to apply
5. Research Period
6. Amount of Funding (including indirect costs)
- JPY 10 million per project per year
7. Evaluation Process
Evaluation of proposals was conducted by an international Panel of Experts nominated by the Belmont Forum member organizations taking part in this joint call. The participating funding organizations then met to discuss the outcome of that evaluation and jointly decided on the projects to select for funding.
8. Evaluation Criteria
The following Belmont Forum CRA general criteria were applied in evaluation of each proposal:
(1) Quality/Intellectual Merit
- Scientific quality and innovativeness of the goals and objectives of the joint research plan
- Added value to be expected from the international research collaboration
(2) Fit to call objectives (including user engagement and societal/broader impacts)
- Addressing at least one of the three topics with emphasis on vulnerable areas
- Engagement of research users (relevant policy makers, regulators, NGOs, communities or industry) and the effectiveness of proposed knowledge exchange activities
- Expected impacts: e.g. societal, policy related, economical
(3) Personnel/Quality of the Consortium (and Trans-disciplinarity for topic 3)
[For topics 1, 2 and 3]:
- Competence and expertise of teams and complementarities of consortium
- Engagement of research users (relevant policy makers, regulators, NGOs, communities or industry) and the effectiveness of proposed knowledge exchange activities
[Additional item if topic 3 addressed]:
- Inter-disciplinary between natural and social sciences, and other sciences where relevant
- Trans-disciplinary approaches within the consortium (co-construction, co-identify, co-develop) consortium
(4) Resources and Management
- Appropriateness of resources and funding requested
- Balanced cooperation