The University’s Center on Global Change has been chosen to head a regional center of the National Institute for Climate Change Research, University and Department of Energy officials announced in late July.
The Center on Global Change will select scientists for a committee that will choose researchers to receive grants from a five-year award of up to $10 million. The grants will support studies of the effects of climate change on the atmosphere and ecosystems.
“[NICCR] is a really large program in the Department of Energy, and Duke will be at the forefront,” said William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
Although the new committee will be based at Duke, the members will be chosen from scientists across the southeastern United States.
Along with the designation to select the committee’s members, the Center on Global Change will receive $1 million to support Duke research and up to an additional $2.5 million over the next five years, depending on the quality of research proposals, said Robert Jackson, professor of biology and faculty director for the Center on Global Change.
The regional chapter of the NICCR was created in response to next year’s planned termination of the National Institute for Global and Environmental Change—a similar program under the Department of Energy.
NICCR aims to diminish the bureaucracy in the Department of Energy’s climate study program by reducing NIGEC’s six regional centers to four.
“The Department of Energy wants the scientific community to think about issues at a broader scale than it typically does,” Jackson said, adding that he hopes to see more collaboration among universities in climate research.
Jackson said he expects research through the program to involve various climate issues that affect the Southeast, noting that the research is geared to help develop “a global model for climate change.”
He said he also expects increased emphasis to be placed on studies of the atmosphere and coastal areas under NICCR.
In addition to proposals to study land ecosystems and novel ways for evaluating their interactions, eligible proposals include computer models and other non-traditional approaches for predicting the effects of climate change.
NICCR’s delegation entails the first major dispersal of funding for climate issues since the Free-Air CO 2 Enrichment program, which limits its proposals to carbon-emission studies.
“This will definitely raise our visibility, but even more it will give us the opportunity to look beyond the walls of Duke to foster more collaboration in diverse settings,” Jackson said.
Duke plans to announce the availability of grants this December, and Jackson estimates the program will eventually involve about 10 other institutions. “I would have been surprised if we didn’t [get the designation],” Schlesinger said. “The more we get recognized as a happening place with respect to global change, the more people will come to Duke for research.”
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