cc: jsmith@stratusconsulting.com, p.jones@uea.ac.uk, k.briffa@uea.ac.uk, mann@psu.edu, wanner@giub.unibe.ch, thorsten.kiefer@pages.unibe.ch date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 10:56:24 +0200 from: Christoph Kull subject: Re: PAGES/CLIVAR workshop to: "Williams, Larry" Dear Larry, First of all, thanks a lot for the positive comments and feedback! Also the organizing committee appreciate this unique chance to booster research, collaboration and communication in that scientifically hot thematic of Climate Change! Therefore, we are very pleased about the opportunity getting EPRI as a partner on board for organizing this event! Nevertheless, we still need some time to communicate and discuss this plan within the respective Scientific Steering Group of PAGES/CLIVAR. I am looking forward getting back to you this week with a definitive, (hopefully and most likely) positive reply about co-organizing this "Past Millennia Workshop" in June 2006 in the Swiss Alps. We may afterwards discuss further issues more in detail. Thanks a lot for you offer and help! All the best and greetings from Bern, Christoph On 20.10.2005 03:47, "Williams, Larry" wrote: > Gentlemen: > > It seems a happy coincidence has happened. With Joel Smith's help I have > been searching for many months for a way support a workshop on climate > variability. Armed with sufficient budget I have been somewhat surprised > at the difficulty of finding scientific talent willing to take on this > task. The main problem has been that there are two significant efforts > going on in this area that have the experts fully engaged. Between the > Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC and the US Climate Change Science > Program everyone who could contribute to this type of workshop seems to > be fully loaded (burnt out?) and not very interested in yet another set > of meetings. > > So when I read over the draft CLIVAR/PAGES Workshop 2006 I was very > pleased to see an agenda that would fit our needs very well. The general > scientific thrust outlined in your draft is right on target. The > additional benefits from our point of view are: > 1. excellent scientific leadership > 2. excellent proposed attendees (I recognize many-not all-names on > your list) > 3. workshop leading to peer-reviewed paper. > 4. cosponsorship by other funders-not just EPRI providing the budget > > The main additional features that I would like to propose would be: > 4. brief report on the workshop (cut and paste from the paper?) with > an emphasis on creating a list of the most important researchable topics > needed to advance the field. The main objective of this report and list > would be to use it as a guide for EPRI in funding follow-on research in > this area. We can discuss this further at some later time. > 5. Acknowledgement of Electric Power Research Institute financial > support in the paper and for the meeting. > > Let me give you a brief explanation of why we are interested in > supporting your workshop. In the 90's we had a significant component of > climate change science research that we initiated and supported. We had > strong involvement with NCAR through our MECCA project, a major carbon > cycle project (Carbon Cycle Model Linkage Project [CCMLP]-Colin > Prentice, Martin Heiman, Fortunate Joos, and 6 teams of modelers from > Europe and the US--see Section 3.6 of TAR for CCMLP references), the US > based ecosystem (VEMAP I and II) project, and many other worthy science > research efforts. Financial difficulties for the US electric industry > during this period eroded our science budget and these projects > gradually came to an end. Things are looking better now and we want to > get back in the business of supporting excellent climate change science > research. This workshop could be an entry point for us to a new period > of support for good science. > > Let me know if EPRI support for your workshop seems feasible from your > point of view. If it does we can discuss the next steps on how to > proceed. > > Best Regards, > > Larry Williams > > Larry Williams, Ph.D. > Senior Technical Manager Global Climate > Electric Power Research Institute > Office: 650-855-2695 > Fax: 650-855-2950 > ljwillia@epri.com > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: Phil Jones [mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk] > Sent: Wed 10/19/2005 8:13 AM > To: Joel Smith > Cc: Christoph Kull; Keith Briffa; Michael E. Mann; Heinz Wanner; > Thorsten Kiefer > Subject: Re: PAGES/CLIVAR workshop > > > > >> Joel, > The workshop outline is attached. As I said on the phone, I'll be > away tomorrow and Friday. PAGES have their support of 10K$ (US) > for this and were hoping CLIVAR could match this. CLIVAR has > come back and told us that their budget situation isn't good at the > moment, and hope for better things later. At the moment > we are wondering whether we will go ahead with a smaller > workshop. These type of meetings need to be arranged some > time in advance because of people's diaries and possible fieldwork > commitments. The timing next June was to take advantage of > another meeting in London, so we could get North Americans and > others slightly cheaper. We also thought the Bernese Oberland in > June would also tempt people, together with the excellent list of > people we'd put together. > > Only the organizing committee (this email list) know of the > meeting, > as we've not approached the majority of the list to check > availability. > > Email Christoph and the others if you're interested. I'm sure > emphases > can be changed somewhat, but the main thrust is model/data comparisons > with respect to past variability. Emphasis would be on temperature, > but > we'd also look at variability of features such as ENSO, the NAO etc. > We've > all been to many meetings and know that numbers of 20-30 work best, > along with lots of discussion and relatively few presentations. > > Best Regards > > Phil > > > > > > Prof. Phil Jones > Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090 > School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784 > University of East Anglia > Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk > NR4 7TJ > UK > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ---- > > -- Christoph Kull Science Officer PAGES IPO Sulgeneckstrasse 38 CH-3007 Bern Switzerland phone: +4131 312 31 53/33 fax: +4131 312 31 68