Synthesis Report - European Science Foundation

36Responses to Environmental and Societal Challenges for our Unstable Earth (RESCUE)of data and knowledge bases. If undertaken atall, such work moves increasingly out of universitiesinto large global change institutes or researchnetworks. However, given the huge uncertaintiesassociated with global change, it is unclear whichkind of knowledge will prove to be the most relevantfor dealing with scientific and policy challenges andthe structure of the scientific research communityneeds to be able to respond to these challenges(CCSP, 2009).For the RESCUE Vision, the knowledge systemmust be flexible and responsive to emerginginsights. This argues in favour of flexible networkstructures and associated funding patterns. At thesame time, researchers must be able to engage inlong-term research activities and cooperation structuresthat allow exploring and assessing innovativeresearch themes and building the capacity for effectiveinterdisciplinary cooperation. Hence a key taskfor science policy and science management is todevelop the right instruments that support thesekinds of self-organising network structures withinthe RESCUE Vision.Currently, in most contexts research budgets stilltend to reflect the old idea of relegating humans andtheir impacts to the margin in the grand scheme ofthings. As a result, a radical effort to redress the balanceand to multiply funding for the social sciencesand the humanities within global change research isunavoidable for achieving the RESCUE Vision.