PIK Biennial Report 2000-2001 - Potsdam Institute for Climate ...

Table 1: Internal Contest of Ideas & Proposals
• departmental concentration on providing state-of-theart
methods and techniques (TOOLs, cf page 28)),
• a set of criteria for initiating, evaluating and concluding
PIK projects within this framework,
• priority given to those externally funded projects that
correspond thematically to PIK projects.
As a result, PIK projects are being evaluated internally
every year. Guidelines have been developed for the
approval of new projects (depending on resources being
available after conclusion of other activities).
26
Date Activity Result
Jan. 2000 Internal Contest of Ideas 51
June 2000 Guided Call for Proposals 32
Jan. 2001 Start of Evaluated Projects 26
Table 2: TOPIK Research Areas
TOPIK 1 - Nonlinear Dynamics of the Ecosphere - e.g. ice age
cycles or the effects of land vegetation and marine biota on climate
TOPIK 2 - Management of Singular Events, which are potentially
disastrous - storms, droughts and floods or the risk of abrupt
ocean circulation changes
TOPIK 3 - Socio-economic Causes of Global Change - studies
of greenhouse gas emissions and options for environmental policy
TOPIK 4 - Emergence of a "Global Subject" in the form of
information networks and institutions for global governance, such
as the UN conventions on climate change and biodiversity
TOPIK 5 - Development of Regional Simulators - flexible modelling
tools for regional environmental management, e.g. in the state
of Brandenburg or north-eastern Brazil
TOPIK 6 - Sensitivity of Economic Sectors to climate change,
e.g. the adaptability of viticulture, the vulnerability of European forestry
and Moroccan agriculture
TOPIK 7 - ’PIKuliar’ Scientific Culture at PIK - quality control,
dealing with uncertainties and limitations in computer modelling
GUIDELINES FOR PIK PROJECTS
1) Research activities are evaluated according to
- quality (scientific potential and results),
- 'PIKuliarity' with respect to TOPIKs and TOOLS,
- relevance of questions for stakeholders.
2) Accordingly, an activity
- will become (part of) a regular PIK project,
- will become a pilot project to check the scientific
potential within one year,
- will be upgraded to a regular or co-ordinating
project,
- will be continued where there is high yield, or otherwise
stopped.
3) Generally, every externally funded activity must prove
to be essentially in support of a PIK project.
ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH IN TOPIKS AND
PIK PROJECTS
Corresponding to its main issues, every PIK project will
belong to a specific TOPIK and will consist of different
TOOL-oriented tasks, which may be funded either internally
or externally. Tasks will be established and
resources allocated for all projects in accordance with
the table of TOPIKS and TOOLs (cf page 27).
A Steering Committee consisting of leading scientists
from PIK (the heads of the departments plus director
plus mentors specifically appointed for each TOPIK)
has been set up to supervise the smooth functioning of
the research programme and guarantee that guidelines
are observed. The allocation of resources to the projects
will be updated regularly.
A survey of the PIK projects assigned to the TOPIKs is
given on the next page. There are three types of projects:
• regular projects (R),
• pilot projects (P), and
• co-ordinating projects (C), which include tasks which
are linked to other projects.
When the total number of projects and resources allocated
to them is looked at, the organizational structure of
research activities will emerge as a matrix, with each scientist
belonging to a department while at the same time
engaged in one or several projects. Incidentally, this is
how present industrial production has long been organized.