Development and current status
Following an initial idea submitted by the French CNRS, the RESCUE proposal was mainly developed during a scoping workshop in late February 2009 through cooperation between the ESF Standing Committees for Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences (LEE (formerly LESC)) and for Social Sciences (SOC (formerly SCSS)). It has been recommended by the ESF Science Advisory Board in March 2009, and approved for launching by the ESF Governing Council in late April 2009.
see RESCUE proposal (272 KB)
Following the submission to the ESF Governing Council, the Standing Committee for Humanities (HUM (formerly SCH)) expressed its will to also officially support this initiative, along with LEE (formerly LESC) and SOC (formerly SCSS). The Marine Board-ESF, the European Polar Board and the European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) also expressed some interest to contribute, while the Standing Committee for Physical and Engineering Sciences (PEN (formerly PESC)) was interested to contribute pecific aspects (eg., energy issues and mathematical modelling).
The RESCUE idea has also been presented in December 2008 at the LEE (formerly LESC)-COST synergy group meeting. Since then, the COST Domain Committees Earth System Science and Environmental Management (ESSEM), Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health (ISCH) and Forests, their Products and Services (FPS) have expressed their interest in contributing as well. COST formally committed itself to this initiative in late May 2009.
It is noteworthy that in addition to the four WGs already specified in the proposal, which are mainly related to implementation issues, an additional Theme, explicitly mentioned in the original CNRS idea, has also been specifically suggested to identify and develop “new, emerging and neglected science questions” within RESCUE remit.
After the Launching Conference held in September 2009, a joint meeting of the RESCUE Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) and Quality Reference Group (QRG) took place on 14 January 2010 where it was decided that to set up a 2-round Delphi consultation built on the International Council for Science (ICSU) Earth System Visioning document "Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability Research" in order to identify key scientific questions to be developed with this activity. The first round was completed in February 2010 and the second one in March 2010.
In addition, a continuous task consist of gathering information / surveys for Europe and RESCUE remit on the relevant strategies in major science funding organisations, and on additional planned, international and interdisciplinary initiatives. The identification of important test cases / questions will also benefit from existing strategy documents already highlighting science priorities developed by ESF Standing Committees and Member Organisations. A Task Force is expected to help setup a list of priority research questions in the field of global change research within the RESCUE framework.
During early May 2009, the relevant contact persons in the ESF Member Organisations have been informed about this new initiative. They have been encouraged to disseminate widely the information to relevant key scientists and research managers, and to invite them to contact ESF. Name suggestions of key scientists or initiatives to be considered for the development of the RESCUE initiative has been continuously encouraged.
Furthermore, the national contact points of the recently formed European Alliance of Global Change Committees (EA-GRC) and several key related actors have also been informed, especially through the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP), a science partnership sponsored by the international Global Change Programmes (IGBP, IHDP, DIVERSITAS, WCRP) and its Joint Projects on Carbon, Food, Water and Health. Cooperation is anticipated in this respect, especially as ESSP is currently working toward a community building effort for new insights in climate science and global environmental change research, and as the European Alliance is gaining speed in its development.
Schematic framework of anthropogenic drivers, impacts of and responses to climate change, and their linkages (IPCC Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report)
RESCUE Themes and Working Groups
The RESCUE foresight initiative is especially organised around the following series of Themes and Working Groups:
- New, emerging and neglected scientific questions in RESCUE remit: to gather a critical mass throughout Europe, for innovative, systemic and integrative science and to contribute to better informed decision making and global sustainable governance.
- Collaboration between the natural, social and human sciences in global change studies: to develop a strategic vision to break down the individual and institutional barriers that hamper collaboration across Europe between scientific disciplines.
- Requirements for research methodologies and data: global change science is crucially dependent on observing and monitoring many natural, social and human processes, and on conceptualising and modelling them at different space and time scales
- Towards a ‘revolution’ in education and capacity building: In education as in science related to global change, the dualism of nature and culture is clearly a great challenges for the next generation of researchers and citizens.
- Interface between science and policy, communication and outreach: Researchers have developed best practices, scientific consensus and targets that can feed into research policy development for the benefit of policy makers and other stakeholders.
As the goal of RESCUE is to develop a series of key recommendations aiming at improving the development and the impact of the RESCUE-related science community, each Working Group should build up a balanced membership and has prepared:
- a detailed work plan and the corresponding foresight methodologies,
- a draft schedule of activities, with their anticipated outputs puts,
- an realistic action plan with clear tasks and term of reference,
- an implementation and monitoring strategy for the long-term perspective,
- a draft list of missing actors and partners (science communities, key actors, stakeholders),
- a clear reporting mechanism to ESF and COST.
The WGs’ membership takes into account the issues of balance between expertise representation in “natural” and “social / human” sciences, and also of gender and geographical balance.
