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Step 2
(2010) Institutional Framework
Using input from step 1—the Grand Challenges document and the community’s feedback on it—step 2 examined options for the institutional arrangements that will be needed to support the research priorities. Step 2 consisted of two meetings – an Open Consultative Forum on 22 June 2010, followed by a Sponsors Meeting on 23-24 June 2010. (This second meeting was the ‘high-level meeting’ meeting referred to in the decision of the 29th ICSU General Assembly.) Both meetings took place at the Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, France.
The meetings convened co-sponsors of the four major global environmental change programmes (IOC, ISSC, IUBS, SCOPE, UNESCO, UNEP, UNU, WMO), the four global environmental change programmes themselves, ESSP, funding agencies, and other organizations to discuss the needed international framework to facilitate the new Earth system research priorities. The participation of these key partners helps ensure that the proposed approach will be beneficial to the broad international community.
The institutional framework should take into account the context in which the four global environmental change programmes and the ESSP operate, including the connections to relevant bodies (e.g. stakeholders, research initiatives, conventions/assessment processes).
In addition, the meetings addressed the following questions:
- How should the priorities be converted into action?
- How to determine the balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches?
- How to interact with stakeholders?
- In terms of keeping the research priorities relevant and up to date, how should a participatory prioritization process to evaluate the research questions work? How often should priorities be re-evaluated?
