02052010
National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
(NCCARF)
synthesis and integrative
research program
APPLICATION package
Call for Proposals
to participate in the modular project:
“Limits to Adaptation”
This package consists of three documents:
1. Application guidelines
2. Project brief
3. Application form
Document 1:
Application Guidelines
Closing date for Expressions of Interest: 28th May 2010
For more information go to: www.nccarf.edu.au
or contact Dr Daniel Stock: email:
phone: 07 5552 7225
1. Background
The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) was established in 2007 with funding from the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, to lead a national interdisciplinary research effort to produce the knowledge that helps government, industry and community decision makers to manage the impacts of climate change and variability. NCCARF sets national research priorities through the development and implementation of national adaptation research plans, operation of research networks, and management of research programmes to address adaptation needs. The Facility is hosted by Griffith University, in partnership with the Queensland Government and 8 universities across Australia.
2. synthesis and integrative research
NCCARF undertakes a program of Synthesis and Integrative Research to address national priorities and synthesise existing and emerging national and international research on climate change impacts and adaptation.
The purpose of this program is to provide decision-makers with information they need to manage the risks of climate change, based primarily, but not exclusively, around published literature. Outputs from this area of activity have direct relevance for the requirements of policymakers, and should be delivered in a readily-accessible format.
It is planned that, once projects have completed their final reporting, the outcomes are delivered to the Communications and Knowledge Adoption section of NCCARF, for onward delivery to policy- and decision-makers in appropriate formats.
Projects undertaken in Phase 1 of the program are:
a. Forest Vulnerability Assessment
b. Historical Case Studies
c. Understanding Adaptive Capacity
Further details on these projects can be obtained from the NCCARF web site at www.nccarf.edu.au.
The Forest Vulnerability Assessment and the Historical Case Studies are both modular projects. A series of work packages, addressing different aspects of the topic, are being carried out, and the major findings from these will be brought together in a single synthesis overview, as shown below. A modular project approach will be employed for the Limits to Adaptation project (as described further in the Project Brief).
A tranche of projects has been identified for funding under Phase 2. These are in the areas of:
a. Limits to adaptation
b. Coastal ecosystems management under climate change
c. Learning from regional climate analogues Part I
d. Literature review of climate change impacts.
It is likely that other projects will be identified for funding under Phase 2. We are now beginning the process of identifying research groups to undertake the proposed studies, beginning with the Limits to Adaptation project.
3. the limits to adaptation project
A description of the planned project is provided in Document 2. This project brief was written by Dr Jon Barnett of the University of Melbourne, and it is planned that he will act as Project Manager.
Proposers may bid for one or more Work Packages. As noted in the Project Brief, they may suggest case studies in addition to those proposed in the Brief. However, proposers should note that the case study areas described in the Brief are carefully selected to deliver insights around the national understanding of limits to adaptation. Detailed justification of proposed alternatives should be provided.
It is important that these projects are carried out on a day-to-day basis by a dedicated member of staff (generally at an early post-doctoral level for Universities, or equivalent), overseen by a senior colleague.
4. funding available
The Work Packages in this modular project are expected to be funded at a level of around $100,000, and for a period of up to 12 months (all work packages must be completed by 10 June 2011). Funding can be used for:
a) Personnel salaries and on-costs, including
- Research Associates, professional officers, technicians, laboratory attendant.
b) Development or purchase of research resources, including:
- Social Surveys,
- Software tools,
- Databases, and
- Minor items of equipment specifically required to support the research.
c) Travel and communication costs associated with the research, including costs of
- Workshops and similar meetings,
- Face-to-face interviews, and
- Research planning meetings.
Funding may not be used for:
- Capital works and general infrastructure,
- Salaries of researchers other than those directly employed on the project,
- Special Studies Programs,
- Student fees or HECS liabilities, or
- Computers and other information and communication facilities that duplicate existing capacity.
Projects should be completed by 10 June 2011.
5. application process
Invitations for full project proposals are invited, using the Application Form provided in Document 3 of this package.
Completed Application Forms should be submitted as attachments via e-mail:
Dr Daniel Stock
Email:
Enquiries may be directed to:
Prof. Jean Palutikof
Tel: 07 5552 7734
Email:
The deadline for receipt of applications is 1700 hours Eastern Standard Time on 28th May 2010.
Proposals will be accepted from public or private research institutions, consortia of researchers or individual researchers. The submissions will be considered from all interested parties regardless of any participation in or affiliation with the NCCARF and/or any of the Adaptation Research Networks.
6. selection process
The proposals will be assessed by an Assessment Committee consisting of the Project Manager, representatives of NCCARF and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, and an independent scientist.
Proposals will be evaluated against selection criteria, as follows:
1. Appropriateness – The extent to which the project addresses the research questions set out in the Project Brief.
2. Project Design – The extent to which the project has clearly stated objectives which will fully address the topics identified in the Project Brief. The project design, including specific objectives and methods, should comprehensively address the topic and deliver new and useful information based on sound analysis.
3. Challenge and Innovation – The extent to which the project uses approaches that are innovative and/or creative.
4. Feasibility –Scientific and technical feasibility of the project based on current knowledge and understanding. Are any risks clearly acknowledged and addressed?
5. Track Record – The extent to which the proposed researcher/research team have the knowledge, experience and capacity to undertake the proposed work (including time allocation of key personnel to project).
6. Value for money – The extent to which the outputs of the project represent good value for money.
7. contractual matters
Contracts
Successful applicants will be required to sign a contract with Griffith University before funding commences. This agreement will cover the project budget, deliverables and milestones, financial and performance reporting and intellectual property.
Confidentiality
The information provided by applicants will be treated as confidential by NCCARF and the Assessment Committee. .
Intellectual property
It is expected that intellectual property generated by this grants program will be freely accessible and available. Successful applicants will also be required to grant to the Commonwealth a permanent, irrevocable, free, world-wide, non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, adapt and exploit the intellectual property derived from the funded research.
Timing
Call for Proposals / 7th May 2010Closing date for submission of proposals / 28th May 2010
Announcement of successful candidates / 11th June 2010
Contracts signed and work commences / 26th July 2010
Completion of work and delivery of final report / 10th June 2011
Document 2: Project Brief:
Limits to Adaptation
Background
A core function of NCCARF is to conduct a program of research that synthesises and integrates existing and emerging national and international climate change adaptation knowledge. One mechanism for delivering this program is through modular Projects. Each Project consists of a number of Work Packages. Each Work Package addresses one aspect of the project theme, and together they contribute a substantial body of work on the theme. Projects undertaken to date, using the modular approach, include a Forest Vulnerability Assessment; the Historical Case Studies of Extreme Events and; an Adaptive Capacity Synthesis Report. This document outlines a Project on the theme of the limits to adaptation.
Rationale
Much of the research on adaptation avoids the question of what adaptation cannot achieve. It is therefore implied by omission that adaptation can avoid all climate impacts. Yet this is clearly not going to be the case for many systems, sectors and places at even modest rates of warming, let alone at the more rapid rates of warming that now seem almost inevitable (Meinshausen et al. 2009).
The notion of ‘limits to adaptation’ is fundamentally concerned with identifying the thresholds at which actions to adapt cease to reduce vulnerability (Adger et al. 2009a). These thresholds exist in four domains (Adger et al, 2009b).
First, there are ecological and physical thresholds beyond which unplanned or planned responses fail to avoid climate change impacts. For example, there seems likely to be a threshold beyond which no amount of human action can avoid repeated and severe coral bleaching (Donner et al. 2005).
Second, there are economic thresholds, which are where the costs of adaptation exceed the costs of impacts averted (that is, it is more expensive to adapt than it is to experience climate impacts). For example, while it seems the costs of protecting cities from sea-level rise are less then the costs of the impacts (e.g. Bigano et al. 2008), the same may not be said for protecting rural coastal settlements. It is important to recognise, however, that this is effectively a social rather than a technical judgment as ‘cost’ here should include both monetary and non-monetary costs, and consideration of non-climate-change related benefits.
Third, there are technological thresholds beyond which available technologies cannot avoid climate impacts. For example, under certain climatic conditions snow-making machines may be able to sustain snow cover for the purposes of skiing (if not for species dependent on the snow-pack), but ultimately climate may change to the point where snow making is no longer possible. Similarly, there may be limits to engineering solutions to avoid flooding in certain places under extreme scenarios of change (Reeder et al. 2009).
It is important to recognise that the identification of limits in these three domains is not strictly an objective process: all entail judgments of expected outcomes to be in some way negative, and all such judgments are effectively based on social values. Therefore, it is important that research on the limits to adaptation carefully explain why the expected impacts either before, after or because of adaptation measures would be considered negative (or not) by sections of society. Evidence for this may be readily available: for example the classification of the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Area clearly identifies that the reef is valued by parties to the World Heritage Convention for its ecological characteristics, and that the reef is an important site for tourists and tourism businesses further indicates different dimensions of its value and different kinds of stakeholders. In other cases, however, the value of an entity at risk may be less obvious, and may require further investigation.
The fourth domain within the limits to adaptation recognizes the subjective nature of the limits to adaptation, and concerns the points at which social groups judge adaptation actions to have failed. These social limits arise when the goals of adaptation decisions, and the proposed measures of their success, fail to consider the values and views of different groups that may be affected. Because the systems that may be part of adaptation processes consist of diverse groups that value things differently, what may be perceived as a successful adaptive response from one point of view may not be perceived the same way by others. For example, increasing the supply of water to a city through desalinisation increases the costs of water, which low-income groups would consider to be a worse outcome than alternative cheaper responses such as recycling water or restrictions on use.
Understanding the limits to adaptation is an emerging frontier of climate change research. It is important for decision making about adaptation for three reasons. First, it helps to determine which responses to climate change are both practicable and legitimate, and the time scales over which adaptation may be considered to be effective. Second, it helps to understand how people may respond to the damage to, or the loss of, things that are important to them, for which there may, in some cases, be substitutes or ameliorating policy measures. Third, it can help prioritise adaptation strategies, refine their intentions, and identify communities that will be served by them.
Approach
The principal task of projects will be to systematically work though the possibilities for and limits to adaptation. Projects should be conducted by teams of researchers from the ecological and social sciences, and where necessary including researchers with expertise in technological and economic analysis.
The main methods of information collection will be:
· Desktop reviews of available information about climatic and other drivers of risk, and proposed responses.
· Extensive workshopping to systematically identify climate change risks, adaptation options, and the limits to adaptation as they concern diverse environmental and social values will be required.
· Projects may also need to engage with key researchers and decision makers with knowledge of the ecological, technological, economic and social dimensions of adaptation. This is to consider the full range of adaptation possibilities, the thresholds at which they may fail to reduce vulnerability, and the values that will be affected. This may be done through various methods, such as interviews, workshops and focus groups, and expert elicitation techniques.
· Finally, some collection of primary data, primarily from stakeholder groups, may also be required.
Work Packages
There are many places and sectors in Australia where the impacts of climate change will be unavoidable, even with adaptation measures..As the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to climb the more the climate will change and so damages will become harder to avoid or minimise. There aresome very obvious and notable places and sectors where adaptation seems likely to reach its limits, and where there is ongoing or pre-existing research and expertise upon which to extend the analysis to include considering the limits of adaptation. For this work package, the following cases have been identified as ideal areas of study: