Strengthening international cooperation on climate change research (SINCERE)

This is a Horizon 2020 project within the JPI Climate programme to increase open international climate change research & innovation cooperation. It involves more than 22 European and international partners that support the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster reduction and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Across the European Union, national research agencies fund the activities of domestic academic institutions working on all aspects of climate change research. Mechanisms exist to ensure that the funds that each country, and the European Union, allocate to these activities are spent in a manner that avoids duplication and promotes collaboration across national boundaries.

SINCERE seeks to extend this approach to non-European Union countries. To this end, the project brings together key scientific and research funding agencies from a range of countries in the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, and small-island developing states. In addition, the project includes a component aimed at engaging private sector actors, and disciplines such as humanities that have traditionally played a small role in climate change research. The project also includes a strong communication component.

Within the project consortium UNEP DTU has a lead role in coordinating a number of activities and leading or contributing to others. Specifically, we lead on an activity aimed to convey science-based input to international climate change negotiations. We do so by preparing issue-papers on selected topics, and feeding the key messages in those papers to climate change negotiators. We draw upon the pro-bono contributions from a small advisory panel, made up of internationally acclaimed experts, to produce issue papers. To ensure that the issue-papers reach the intended audience, we rely on national government agencies and the European Commission, both of whom are integral to the project.

We support the work of partner institutions by seeking to define, and identify funding for, joint research projects between European Union and non-European Union countries. This entails consultations with a range of stakeholders, and a careful assessment of both research priorities in the countries involved, and the scope of existing (domestic and European Union) research budgets.

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Focus area: Climate Planning and Policy, Strengthening climate change research and collaboration

Country / Region: Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania

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