date: Mon Nov 24 15:58:29 2008 from: Keith Briffa subject: Re: URGENT -slight revision of letter to: Håkan Grudd Hakan great - my only suggestions - remove second word "to" in penultimate paragraph. Add a last paragraph stating I do not intend to make any charge for my involvement in this project. However, I would estimate my time in retrieving , reformatting and transferring recent tree-ring data to the UK and the time I expect to spend on collaboration and manuscript production to amount to a theoretical contribution of approximately (some local currency equivalent of several thousand dollars ). If you could put this on official looking paper and send a PDF version that would be brilliant. Thanks again I can only have small hopes of getting this, as squeezing money from NERC is like getting blood from a stone - but I really want to work with you come whatever . Keith At 14:07 24/11/2008, you wrote: Keith, have a look at attached draft. Feel free to comment and suggest changes. /Håkan Keith Briffa skrev: thanks - as for head of department - not as I see it - but if they are happy you could say so Keith At 12:34 21/11/2008, you wrote: Ok, I'll make a first draft for you to comment. "The letter of support should confirm the organisations commitment ..." Does this mean that the head of the department also must sign? /Håkan Keith Briffa skrev: The Dendroclimatic Divergence Phenomenon: reassessment of causes and implications for climate reconstruction. Dear Hakan, I have just discovered that the rules of UK NERC dictate that the only way I can include your support in the application we are making is to name you as a formal project partner. Of course we are delighted to do this but I need to know that you are happy for me to do so. As I said before you would not be eligible for any funds. (I do intend, if we are successful to seek alternative funds to support a small international workshop at which we could review theories and results). Unfortunately NERC has strict requirements regarding the content of support letters from project partners. I quote: Each Project Partner must provide a detailed letter of support of up to 2 sides of A4. The letter of support should confirm the organisations commitment to the proposed project, identify the value, relevance and possible benefits of the proposed work to the partner, the period of support, the full nature of the collaboration and how the partner will be involved in the project and provide added value. They also state that: Partner contributions, whether in cash or in kind, should be explained in detail in the case for support, including the equivalent value of any in-kind contributions. The letter should be written when the proposal is being prepared and targeted specifically to the project. NERC reserves the right to remove all other letters from applications. The NERC Research Grants Handbook can be found at [1]< [2]http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/researchgrants/grantshandbook.pdf%20where%2 064-66>http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/researchgrants/grantshandbook.pdf where 64-66 (page 8) describes project partners and the terms and conditions are on pages 10-21, though I honestly do not think you need to bother with this. In my description of the value of your collaboration I would need also to estimate (in monetary terms) the value of your collaboration. Could you suggest a nominal figure? I know I should have looked much more carefully into this earlier but I wonder whether you could write your letter to comply with the specifications above. Make sure to state explicitly that you are happy to be named and act as project partner in this application. The proposed title should be mentioned explicitly. Please also include some details of how this work will be of (scientific) value to yourself (Institution). I would ask that you state that you will collaborate over the full-30-month period of the research, perhaps saying especially in the late stages of analysis: to provide data early on, but to review results, and collaborate with us in guiding the work and of course in writing up results. Stress the value of your data and (if applicable) ongoing research in the area of divergence. Much of your letter can be left as is but with these specific additions. The letter must be no more than two sides and an electronic version alone is fine. Please believe I know how inconvenient this is and I apologise again never do things in haste (but I always seem to have to). We need this letter as soon as possible but by Thursday at the latest. Best wishes Keith -- Professor Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K. Phone: +44-1603-593909 Fax: +44-1603-507784 [3]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/ -- ________________________ Håkan Grudd Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm URLs: [4]<[5]http://www.bbcc.su.se>www.bbcc.su.se [6]www.ink.su.se Phone: +46 (0)8 674 7591 Fax: +46 (0)8 16 4818 E-mail: [7]<[8]mailto:hakan.grudd@natgeo.su.se>hakan.grudd@natgeo.su.se Personal webpage: [9]<[10]http://people.su.se/~hgrud>http://people.su.se/~hgrud -- Professor Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K. Phone: +44-1603-593909 Fax: +44-1603-507784 [11]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/ -- ________________________ Håkan Grudd Bert Bolin Centre for Climate Research Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm URLs: [12]www.bbcc.su.se [13]www.ink.su.se Phone: +46 (0)8 674 7591 Fax: +46 (0)8 16 4818 E-mail: [14]hakan.grudd@natgeo.su.se Personal webpage: [15]http://people.su.se/~hgrud -- Professor Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K. Phone: +44-1603-593909 Fax: +44-1603-507784 [16]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/