Future Earth Update

[Faye McNeill]

Hello everyone, 

I am writing to provide an update on the FutureEarth network project.  

Donald Forbes, Ilan Chabay, and I responded to FE, confirming that we enthusiastically accept their offer of US$40,000 to work together with our teams and prepare a proposal which addresses how arctic issues should be addressed through one process in Future Earth. 

Although we have inquired, not much information is available at this time regarding the 2015 FE call that we are meant to respond to. We have tentatively made the following plan, which we may revise as information comes available regarding the timeline and parameters of the 2015 FE call for proposals:

 - A core team including the three PIs (Don, Ilan, and myself) and 1-2 other key participants from each proposal team will meet Nov 6-7, 2014 here at Columbia University to work on the proposal.  The goals will be to have a detailed outline of the proposal, a plan for the Arctic Change Summit satellite meeting (see below), and a task list including additional expert and stakeholder connections to be made, by the end of this meeting.

 - As an initial effort to engage and coordinate the relevant communities, and solicit feedback on the proposal outline, we will hold a larger meeting incorporating more proposal team participants as well as stakeholders, in conjunction with the Arctic Change Summit being held by the ArcticNET consortium in Ottawa, CA, Dec. 8-12, 2014

 - An additional followup meeting of the core team to complete proposal preparation, as needed, in early 2015

All the best, 

Faye

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