From	Keith Briffa	Date	Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:33:01 +0100
To	Tim Osborn, Clare Goodess, Phil Jones, Douglas Maraun, Janice Darch
Subject	Re: potential DfID funding for climate centre
have not been approached - but I think it really does sound like the sort of initiative CRU/ENV are looking for. I get the feeling this is the sort of potential contact ENV would wish to take over. Keith At 11:31 13/10/2008, Tim Osborn wrote: >Hi CRU Board, > >I just had an interesting chat with Jack Newnham >from the International Development Team at Price >Waterhouse Cooper. They get lots of DfID >(Douglas: DfID is the UK Government Department >for International Development) funding. > >They've heard that DfID are likely to call for >expressions of interest for a new centre >focussing on international climate >change. Their idea is to fund a centre that >would be the first point of call for advice and >for commissioning research related to climate >change and development or to climate change in countries where DfID operate. > >He was talking about £15 million per year for 5 >years! Not sure how much would be from DfID and >how much raised from other donors (and hence >uncertain), nor how much would be given up-front >versus how much spent later on specific research >projects organised via this centre. > >Nevertheless, sounds big enough to be worth getting involved in. > >He was clearly just testing the water with us, >so not sure that they definitely wish to involve >us. He may want to meet to talk through things, >if they decide to ask us to join their >proposal. He said he'd email me later -- I'll >forward this when it arrives. They're also >contacting the Tyndall Centre, and no doubt a number of other institutes. > >Has anyone else in CRU been approached? > >Presumably, if this call for tenders is actually >issued, this is likely to interest Tyndall >greatly. But CRU can offer a significant >contribution -- especially data and scenarios >developed for specific (developing) countries -- >and this should be seen as independent from >Tyndall rather than part of Tyndall >contribution. There's also Declan/DEV, so UEA as a whole has much to offer. > >Any thoughts on this? > >Tim > > > > >Dr Timothy J Osborn, Academic Fellow >Climatic Research Unit >School of Environmental Sciences >University of East Anglia >Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK > >e-mail: t.osborn@uea.ac.uk >phone: +44 1603 592089 >fax: +44 1603 507784 >web: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~timo/ >sunclock: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~timo/sunclock.htm > -- Professor Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K. Phone: +44-1603-593909 Fax: +44-1603-507784 http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/