Climate research initiatives move forward

Much has been happening behind the scenes within two UVic-based climate research initiatives.

The Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), established at UVic in 2005, is dedicated to bridging the gap between climate research and its applications, and to making practical information on climate change available to government, industry and the public. Included in the consortium are academic research organizations, government labs and current and potential users of climate information.

The research focus of PCIC is on water resources and forestry, and other sectors facing potential impacts from climate change. These include transportation, infrastructure, risk management, biodiversity, agriculture and health.

The university has recently restructured the corporation that administers PCIC. It’s now a not-for-profit corporation with representation from the university, the provincial government and industries such as BC Hydro. The president and CEO of the corporation is climatologist Dr. David Rodenhuis, who has been appointed director of PCIC for a two-year term ending in 2010.

For background information on PCIC, visit http://pacificclimate.org/.

The new Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), which was established earlier this year by the BC government, will complement the work of PCIC. Hosted and led by UVic, PICS is a collaboration of BC’s four research-intensive universities and is funded by a $90-million endowment fund that is expected to generate $4 million a year. Of that, $1 million is designated for PCIC.

The development of PICS continues to move ahead on a number of fronts, reports Dr. Tom Pedersen, UVic’s dean of science and PICS spokesperson.

“We are very actively building a long-term research agenda and will soon be recruiting graduate students for spring 2009 PICS fellowships,” Pedersen says. “We’re also planning a PICS visiting fellowship program and a seminar series for early in the new year, among other initiatives. It’s an exciting time.”

To find out more about the structure and goals of PICS, visit www.pics.uvic.ca.