Background
The federating research programme ‘Management and Impacts of Climate Change’ (GICC – Gestion et Impacts du Changement Climatique) is one of the research programmes supported by the French Board for Economic Studies and Environmental Evaluation (D4E – Direction des études économiques et de l’évaluation environnementale). It was launched in 1999 by the ministry concerned, now called the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development Transports and Housing (MEDDTL). Several other organisms also contributed to the programme: the interministry task-force on the greenhouse effect (MIES), the Ministry of Agriculture, the Environment and Energy Conservation Agency (ADEME), the National Climate Warming Effects Monitoring Agency (ONERC), the French Biodiversity Institute, etc.
Objectives
The stated objectives of the programme have always been to develop knowledge to back public policies, considering climate changes from the perspective of their impacts as well as from that of greenhouse gas limitation measures and climate change adaptation measures. This requires the mustering of research teams from a wide range of academic fields: on the one hand, the physical and biological sciences for a better knowledge of the impacts and, on the other, social studies to explore mitigation and adaptation possibilities.
Operation and implementation
Scientific knowledge is steadily progressing within this multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. The Scientific Board is careful to take into account the validated research results as well as the societal concerns voiced by the Steering Committee to define the major orientations of each oncoming CRP. Research activities on climate change undertaken at the European level are also taken into account. The French Ministry of Ecology, for example, is involved in the European programme ERA-NET CIRCLE that aims to coordinate the funding agencies of national research in Europe, thus facilitating links between this type of programme and GICC.
The GICC programme operates through yearly Calls for Research Proposals (CRPs). CRPs were issued in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2010; as was a joint call for tenders with the French Biodiversity Institute (IFB) on the theme of ‘biodiversity and global change’.
The research projects selected as a result of these CRPs cover several years (3 years), so the different programmes overlap in time.
The projects belonging the CRP 2008 and 2010 are currently ongoing.
