Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of the IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

The IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) met in May 2001 to review the first-year progress of various Collaborative Research Network (CRN) projects, discuss the upcoming Human Dimension open science meeting, and plan for an ISP Synthesis Conference in 2002. The committee identified a critical need for a standard reporting format to better track scientific outputs and human dimension impacts. The meeting also addressed SAC membership vacancies, the development of the IAI Data Information System (IAI-DIS), and the failure of a proposal for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to secure funding for Latin America.

• The SAC identified a systemic lack of a standard report format for CRN projects, which has resulted in non-homogeneous information and difficulty for the Directorate to extract data on publications and supported students.
• The 2001 Human Dimension (HD) open science meeting attracted 550 abstracts, from which 140 were selected for presentation. The event is supported by US$ 100K from Brazil and US$ 100K from the NSF, among other contributors.
• The SAC reviewed several CRN projects with mixed results: CRN 001 (Biogeochemical Cycles) and CRN 003 (Climate Variability from Treeline Environments) were deemed successful, while CRN 009 (Cattle Ranching) and CRN 048 (Human Health Impacts) faced significant administrative delays.
• The Data Working Group recommended that IAI shift its Data Information System (DIS) strategy toward a simpler website-based version with links to individual project pages, given the availability of other sources like NASA.
• A proposal submitted by Osvaldo Sala on behalf of IAI for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was declined, as the assessment decided to fund only projects in Asia and Africa, excluding Latin America.
• The committee proposed an ISP Synthesis Conference for late 2002 to capture the accomplishments of the ISP program, with a final product consisting of a book or series of books.
• The SAC recommended that new grant announcements prioritize small research projects (US$ 20-50k, maximum US$ 100k for 2 years) involving at least three countries and targeting junior researchers.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2001). Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of the IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/8_SACSJC.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of the IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). 2001. https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/8_SACSJC.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of the IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) |date=26 June 2001 |url=https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/8_SACSJC.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2001report, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of the IAI Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2001}, month = jun, url = {https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/8_SACSJC.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }