date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 09:28:37 +0000 from: "Melvin Cannell" subject: Re: success to: Would it be an idea to talk to someone at Cambridge to ask about sponsors - although we are not supposed to know about BP, the rumour is that they were willing to put in several million with the Cambrideg bid. Suggest this is done very soon. Professor M G R Cannell ITE, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, Scotland Tel: + 44 0 131 445 4343 Fax: + 44 0 131 445 3943 mgrc@ceh.ac.uk >>> Mike Hulme 29/11/99 18:43:30 >>> Dear All, We have had an initial communication from NERC that the Tyndall Consortium has been invited to submit a detailed bid for the Climate Change Centre. The Panel were 'very impressed with our bid'. Out of seven outline proposals, only two have been shortlisted, the other one being a Consortium led by Imperial College (with U.Edinburgh and ECI, Oxford) in support. [not in the NERC letter - we believe that Michael Grubb is currently leading this bid]. The five 'failed' bids were those led by The Open University, U. Oxford, U.Cambridge, the White Rose Consortium and the UCL/Reading team. We will very shortly have some specific feedback from the Panel about our bid, as well as some guidance on the content of the full bids. As expected, the submission date is 29 February 2000, and the full bid may run to 50pp. in length, plus 50pp. of Appendices (12pt. size). Some of the unsuccessful bids had certain strengths and NERC suggest 'we might like to capitalise on some of these by approaching individuals involved.' Before acting on this latter suggestion we need to have the specific feedback from the Panel. Our initial reaction here at UEA is *not* to engage in a round-country search for extra partners, feeling that our existing Consortium already has enough strength. There may be, however, 1-2 specific additional contributions that we may like to invite. More will follow when we receive the feedback, perhaps later this week. It may be possible to schedule a short meeting before the Christmas break to discuss our strategy - if not, and in any case, we should reckon on a fuller meeting of the Consortium sometime during January. Congratulations to all ...... clearly, we have headed off some quite substantial competition already, leaving one final hurdle to jump. Regards, Mike ***************************************************************************** Dr Mike Hulme Reader in Climatology tel: +44 1603 593162 Climatic Research Unit fax: +44 1603 507784 School of Environmental Science email: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk University of East Anglia web site: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/ Norwich NR4 7TJ ***************************************************************************** Annual mean temperature in Central England for 1999 is currently about +1.3 deg C above the 1961-90 average *************************************************** The global-mean surface air temperature anomaly for 1998 was +0.57 deg C above the 1961-90 average, the warmest year yet recorded *****************************************************************************