ISSC-Belmont Forum Agenda Setting Workshop Report published

On 8-9 June 2011, the ISSC hosted the ISSC-Belmont Forum Social Science Agenda Setting Workshop on Global Environmental Change. The workshop gathered together a truly international and interdisciplinary group of 64 participants from 29 countries incorporating all regions, comprising social and human scientists, humanities scholars, and representatives of social science funding agencies, as well as policymakers. The aim of the workshop was to identify the most urgent, relevant and compelling social science research questions on global environmental change (GEC), particularly in relation to the Belmont Challenge, which is: to deliver knowledge needed for action to mitigate and adapt to detrimental environmental change and extreme hazardous events.

The challenge to the workshop participants was to bring critical social science perspectives to bear on unpacking and, if necessary, reframing the Belmont Challenge. The workshop also served to begin mapping existing centres of excellence and overall strengths and weaknesses in social science research on global environmental change in different parts of the world; and to consider ways of mobilising broader social science communities and better realising their integration with the natural sciences in this field of research.

A detailed workshop Synthesis Report and Resource Document has now been published. The workshop results will provide invaluable input for the ISSC’s Climate Change Design Project, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), as well for other international GEC research coordination initiatives in which the ISSC is involved.

Click here to download the full workshop report.

December 2011