Geoscience Programme IGCP The IGCP is the oldest and one of the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

The IGCP is the oldest and one of the most successful examples of scientific cooperation between a non-governmental organization – the IUGS – and an intergovernmental

• rganization – UNESCO

The International Geoscience Programme IGCP

Catastrophic events in Earths´ History

Vivi Vajda, Professor in Paleontology, Lund University,

• Sweden. IGCP Chair 2009-2012

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

70 million year old dinosaur footprints in Bolivia

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

The thought of IGCP started out in late 1960s as a need to correlate (=link) the continents Note that the theory on continental drift was not yet accepted!

Modern distribution of Glossopteris fossils

? ? ?

Distribution of the Plant fossil Glossopteris:

• ne of the first firm evidences for existence of Gondwana

Oates Scott Bowers Wilson Evans 1911-1913 BRITISH SOUTH POLAR EXPEDITION

School book example is Grand Canyon

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

There were evident needs to aid interaction and exchange of ideas between scientists in the East-West divided Europe of that time, and scientist in Asia- where many countries were involved in wars

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

The programme was launched in 1972 during the 24th International Geological Congress in Montreal as a joint Initiative of IUGS and UNESCO

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

The first IGCP Scientific board, 1973

First IGCP Scientific Board Chairman Sir Kingsley Dunham, late Director of the British Geological Survey

From Correlation Programme

Original primary aims - stratigraphy

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

IGCP brings together scientists from around the world, and provides them with seed money to devise and conduct joint international research and to collectively publish the results. High on the list of selection criteria are scientific quality and the extent of the international, multidisciplinary cooperation likely to begenerated by a proposed project.

To a Geoscience programme

Changes in IGCP

Geoscience in the Service of Society

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) Edward Derbyshire IGCP Chair 1996-2001 Professor, Royal Holloway, University of London Editor: Edward Derbyshire

IGCP has during the 40 years supported over 500 projects in about 150 countries

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

Presently about 30 projects running covering over 5 themes

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

Still keeping the important “bottom-up” approach

Themes:

• The Global Change and Evolution of Life
• Geohazards: reducing risks
• Earth Resources: sustaining society
• Geoscience of the Water Cycle
• The Deep Earth: how it controls our environment

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

Which are the main sponsors?

• The initiators and main sponsors of the IGCP

are IUGS and UNESCO’s Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences

• Other sponsors include UNESCO’s Water

Sciences Division, The Swedish International Development cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the National IGCP- committee of China

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

Some of the conditions for winning an IGCP project are:

• Involvement of scientists from the developing countries
• Capacity building programs (i.e. MSc, PhD) within the project
• Conferences and Training Workshops conducted in both the

developing and developed countries

• Sharing of research facilities for producing high-quality data
• Joint publications of journal papers, maps, models

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

Ear-marked funding from SIDA, 100.000 USD/year during 5 years Ear-marked funding supporting scientists from selected developing countries. help to integrate “new” project leaders in at least six excellent projects with the aim to integrate these new leaders into the whole working process of applications, annual reporting, organization of workshops, participation in business meetings etc.

The main point is that the infrastructure is already set up including networks of experienced international scientists used to running IGCP projects

40 Years of the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP)

IGCP- integrating nations, Cultures and Science