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Integrative activities | Working groups

Working Groups

QUEST Working Groups are funded from the QUEST core team budget. The core team provides organizational and logistical support. Working Groups are initiated and led by core team members and/or QUEST Integration Team (iTeam) members, or other scientists they designate. This document lists currently active QUEST Working Groups, including several that are close to delivering their final products, as well as those in an active planning phase.

Many Working Groups are co-sponsored and partly (or, in some cases, almost entirely) financed from other sources, e.g. projects and activities of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) and Diversitas; other networking activities, such as Eur-Oceans, and the Australian Research Council/New Zealand Landcare Research Network on Vegetation Function (ARC/NZ); or by UK and international stakeholder organizations. Each Working Group involves links with one or (more often) several QUEST-funded research projects and many have links to other UK research activities.

  1. Abrupt climate changes (Maria Fernanda Sanchez-Goñi) Co-sponsored by CNRS
  2. Adaptation in the coastal zone (Sarah Cornell, Wolfgang Knorr) Co-sponsored by ECF, IGBP-LOICZ
  3. Biodiversity and climate change (Jo House, Marko Scholze, Andy Stott - Defra). Co-sponsored by Defra.
  4. Climate prediction for robust policy making (Jo House)
  5. Fire (Wolfgang Knorr, Sandy Harrison). "Fast Track Initiative" (FTI) co-sponsored by IGBP
  6. Green Ocean modelling (Corinne Le Quéré). Co-sponsored by EUR-OCEANS
  7. Hydrological cycle (Colin Prentice, Julia Slingo, Ed Maltby).
  8. PFC (Plant functional classification) (Colin Prentice). "Fast track initiative" (FTI) co-sponsored by IGBP, Diversitas.
  9. QUAVIDA (Fire, vegetation and climate change in Australasia) (Sandy Harrison). Co-sponsored by the Australia-New Zealand (ARC-NZ) Research Network on Vegetation Function.
  10. Climate change and uplands (Jo House and Harriet Orr). Co-sponsored by the Environment Agency.
  11. Sustainable biofuels (Marko Scholze, Wolfgang Knorr). Co-sponsored by Volkswagen.
  12. Boundary layer processes (Sarah Cornell, Laurens Ganzeveld). Possible co-sponsorship by IGBP-iLEAPS.
  13. SEDMIP (Andy Ridgwell). Possible co-sponsorship by IGBP-PAGES.
  14. Dust and Climate (Barbara Maher) Co-sponsored by IGBP-PAGES, INQUA (proposed)
  15. Dynamics of grazing systems (Colin Prentice)
  16. Human dimensions of Earth System modelling (Colin Prentice, Sarah Cornell) Royal Society
  17. PIMMS - Pinatubo Interdisciplinary Multi-Model Study - (Oliver Wild)
  18. PMIP (Palaeoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project) - (Paul Valdes, Sandy Harrison)
  19. Avoided deforestation (Wolfgang Knorr, Jo House, Shaun Quegan) Co-sponsored by NCEO
  20. Visualisation (Pru Foster)

Background

QUEST is more than a grants programme. The QUEST core team, financed by NERC through a contract to the University of Bristol, is responsible for catalysing and carrying out a range of integrating activities. Working Groups are one such activity, and are expected to generate high-profile outputs for QUEST.

Working Groups provide an additional means (over and above funded projects) for QUEST to promote co-operative research, involving different types of institution, usually with a strong international component, and engaging research users as well as scientists wherever appropriate. Although some deal with highly technical topics, all Working Groups are informed by an awareness of the potential social and policy significance of their topic. Many are co-sponsored by other organizations and funding bodies, e.g. Defra, the Environment Agency, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Volkswagen, etc.

Each Working Group deals with a well-focused, cross-cutting topic, and aims for a product—this can be a data set, a model, a policy briefing, a high-profile scientific paper, etc. Some Working Groups (e.g. Fire) are generating multiple products. The Working Group topics have been chosen with a view to adding value to NERC’s existing investments in QUEST projects, and thereby to contribute to QUEST’s objectives as set out in the Science Plan (http://quest.bris.ac.uk/about/policies/scienceplan.pdf). Topics range from advanced Earth System Science and modelling problems (e.g. Plant Functional Classification; Hydrological Cycle) to complex societal issues that require input from interdisciplinary science (e.g. Sustainable Biofuels; Biodiversity and Climate Change).

Eighteen Working Groups are listed as active at the time of writing. Some are in the final reporting phase; some are in full operation; some are just starting. A proportion of these Working Groups were initiated directly by the QUEST core team. Others were proposed by QUEST project principal investigators (PIs). Several were created in response to an earlier "gaps and opportunities" consultation, whereby the core team canvassed a wide range of scientists and stakeholders in the UK about additional activities that would complement QUEST’s original portfolio of projects. Some of these activities became proposal opportunities and, subsequently, funded projects; others were considered more immediately suitable for scoping by a Working Group. 

How they work

The modus operandi of Working Groups is deliberately flexible to facilitate the participation of a wide range of scientists and stakeholders with different time commitments. However, the style and format broadly conform to international best practice as developed e.g. by the ARC-NZ Research Network on Vegetation Function (http://www.vegfunction.net/) in Sydney, Australia, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, NCEAS (http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/) in Santa Barbara, California, and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, NESCENT (http://www.nescent.org/index.php) in Durham, North Carolina. The Directors of these three organizations participate, with the QUEST Leader, in regular videoconferences of the Networks International Committee (NIC) chaired by Mark Westoby of the ARC-NZ Network. QUEST Working groups specifically aim to produce one or more well-defined outcome or “product” of high scientific value, such as a key data set, a new prototype model or a high-profile synthesis, that would otherwise be unlikely to emerge in the near future. The groups always engage world-class expertise in the fields needed to generate the product. The size of a Working Group can be from 5 to 25 people, but generally the optimum number is considered to be 15 or fewer; this is for reasons of effectiveness, not economy. Key to success is the inclusion of a proportion of individuals (typically younger scientists) that are likely to be able to commit the necessary effort to ensure completion of the product(s).

QUEST Working groups usually meet over a three to five day period, during which time either the group’s product is completed, or a practical and realistic plan is developed for its completion. Larger tasks are tackled by holding two or more meetings, six to twelve months apart. Work between meetings can be supported by a short research visit (up to three months’ duration), either by a designated UK scientist to visit another institution in the UK, or by a non-UK scientist to visit the UK, to work with the QUEST core team or with other QUEST project scientists. Funding for such visits is from the core team contract and can support travel, subsistence and lodging, but not salary or indirect costs.

Ancillary—but nonetheless important—"community building" outcomes of many Working Groups include the promotion of (a) new collaborations within the UK, especially those that forge linkages among NERC Research and Collaborative Centres, NERC directed programmes and the university sector, and (b) closer engagement of UK Earth System scientists, projects and institutions with the international global change programmes (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, IGBP; World Climate Research Programme, WCRP; International Human Dimensions Programme, IHDP; DIVERSITAS; and the Earth System Science Partnership, ESSP, which links these bodies).

The QUEST core team provides logistical support for most Working Groups, including the procurement of suitable meeting facilities, accommodation and meals, sending invitations and information, and arranging reimbursements. The standard letter of invitation includes a request for each participant to use their own funds for travel to and from the meeting, if they have funds that can be used in this way—accompanied by an assurance that no invitee will be prevented from participating through lack of travel funds.

Current possibilities

There is still a possibility for QUEST project PIs (or independent members of the QUEST Integration Team) to propose a limited number of new QUEST Working Groups. Any decision on a new Working Group would be subject to the availability of core team funds, and would require provision of a realistic plan for the completion of the Working Group’s goals within the time frame of QUEST (i.e., before 30 September 2010). Anyone wishing to suggest a new Working Group at this time should send a brief, informal proposal by e-mail to the QUEST Secretary, julie.shackleford@bris.ac.uk. Proposals should include an indication of who will lead the activity; background and rationale; expected product(s) and outcomes; a preliminary invitation list; and an approximate budget (a rough indication is sufficient). Ideas can be discussed with the QUEST Leader, colin.prentice@bris.ac.uk, at any time. The QUEST core team may be able to help in the development of proposals by facilitating cross-disciplinary and/or international contacts.

It should be noted that co-sponsoring of Working Groups with other funders is viewed favourably, and also that there are in principle possibilities for joint financing of Working Groups by QUEST and one of QUEST’s NIC partner organizations (the ARC-NZ Research Network on Vegetation Function, NCEAS, and NESCent) on topics falling within these organizations’ remit. Ideas for joint funding of workshops by two or more of these organizations should be discussed in the first instance either with the QUEST Leader or with the Director of one of the other partners. For further information on application procedures for the other NIC partners, please consult:

http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/rfp (for applications to NCEAS),

http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/rfp/wg (for joint applications to NCEAS and NESCent), and

http://www.vegfunction.net/research/how_to_apply.htm (for the ARC-NZ Network).

Colin Prentice

30 June 2008