[Aqualist] Call for input - the Future of PAGES

[Helen McGregor]

Dear AQUAlisters,

The Future Earth Past Global Changes (PAGES) program has been a driving organisation in making the most of the paleoclimate, paleoenvironment and paleoecological research we all carry out. Numerous scientists and PhD students at Australian institutions have benefited from involvement in PAGES working groups, leadership roles, and workshops. Many of us have contributed to PAGES outputs and publications from these activities.

In September 2017 PAGES received its last endowment from the present contract with US-NSF. This money is for one year (until 31 August 2018), and the US-NSF have said that the contract will not be renewed (or prolonged or extended). The NSF contribution is about half the PAGES budget (~US$400,000). In the short term this means PAGES will only support a small number of workshops in 2019. In the long term we risk losing PAGES. This would be a great loss for our research field.

A few of us have been discussing possible ways we could support the future of PAGES. We would like to solicit the AQUA community to build a bid for possible funds – sourced in Australia and overseas. Please let us know if you have any specific suggestions and if you would like to be actively involved in exploring suggestions further. We’ll keep the AQUA community posted over the coming weeks as to possible options.

Best wishes,

Helen McGregor mcgregor at uow.edu.au<mailto:mcgregor at uow.edu.au>
Chris Turney c.turney at unsw.edu.au<mailto:c.turney at unsw.edu.au>
Steven Phipps Steven.Phipps at utas.edu.au<mailto:Steven.Phipps at utas.edu.au>
Katrin Meissner k.meissner at unsw.edu.au<mailto:k.meissner at unsw.edu.au>
Kathy Allen kathryn.allen at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:kathryn.allen at unimelb.edu.au>
Joelle Gergis jgergis at unimelb.edu.au<mailto:jgergis at unimelb.edu.au>

______________________________________________________
Associate Professor Helen McGregor
ARC Future Fellow
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science Medicine & Health | Building 41 Room G20
University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
T +61 2 4221 4265 | M +61 (0)432 897 139
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