Funding of Geosciences: Coordinating National and International Resources

摘要

As recently as 2010, the international scientific community, through the ICSU, identified five Grand Challenges that, if addressed in the next decade, will deliver knowledge to enable sustainable development, poverty eradication, and environmental protection in the face of global change (ICSU 2010). The five challenges for global sustainability research are: forecasting, observing, confining, responding, and innovating. These challenges were developed, according to the ICSU document, using criteria that examined broad scientific importance, opportunities for global coordination, relevance to decision makers, and leveraging of existing or upcoming breakthroughs. The ICSU document goes on to discuss a fifth criterion, whether support for funding exists in the broader community.