UK-ICOS General Meeting -15th March 2016
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Teleconference
Attendees: Richard Sanders (NOC), Jessica Thorn (UoE), Tom Gardiner (NPL), Tarquin Dorrington (DEFRA), Simon O´ Doherty (Bristol University), Matthew Wilkinson (Forest Research), Jan Kaiser (UEA), Eiko Nemitz (CEH), Dorothee Bakker (UEA), Anna Jones (BAS), Alistair Manning (MET Office), Grant Forster (UEA), Stephan Matthieson (Edinburgh University), Phil Nightingale (PML), Andrew Watson (UoE) and Ute Schuster (UoE)
The purpose of this meeting was to update the wider community on the steps taken so far, progress and the situation at present.
Progress to date
After a long period of hiatus, we held a Greenhouse Gases meeting in January 2015 at the Town Hall in Southampton. This achieved an established enthusiasm for the concept of the UK to join ICOS.
In April 2015 a further meeting was held in London in which stations were prioritised and we became committed to writing a report and establishing a UK ICOS dedicated website.
In August 2015 the report was approved after a teleconference meeting. An idea for the design of a UK ICOS leaflet was approved and the website was constructed. Jennifer Riley left her position and Jessica Thorn (UNEXE) now oversees some of her duties and Charlie Morgan now oversees the legal aspects.
In October 2015 we presented the finalised report to the MSCC. DEFRA then began the process of liaising with other Government departments to gauge their enthusiasm for contributions.
In November 2015 we held a meeting in Edinburgh and established that the non-NERC community is happy with NERC proceeding on the basis of the stations it controls.
In December 2015 work began on documents identified by NERC representative, Amber Vater. We created the due diligence spreadsheet (detailing the costs) and an MOU (memorandum of understanding) between partners. These documents have been sent to Amber Vater.
We now have a Project Office with a legal representative (Charlie Morgan) and a project
co-ordinator (Jessica Thorn).
For the UK ICOS:
Stakeholder: Richard Sanders (NOC)
Focal Point: Andrew Watson (UoE)
The UK is still in the planning stage to sign up to ICOS ERIC. NERC will make the application so that we can start to pay the subscriptions fees which in turn will unlock EU funding for the entire community.
ICOS obtained formal legal status at a launch meeting attended by Charlie Morgan, in Helsinki, December 2015. The outcome was the INFRADEV proposal.
There is a need to create an Executive Board to officially interact with ICOS (votes). We propose to transform the community to a UK General Assembly aiming to meet once a year.
The UK has made an offer to ICOS to host the OTC in collaboration with Norway, supporting ocean observations. There are many MoU’s and legal work that comes with this, and we hope to transfer our legal efforts from April 2016.
Wider Community Engagement - Tarquin Dorrington
The Marine Science Coordination Committee (Nov 2015) was attended by Andrew and Richard, and as a result of their presentation DEFRA will be engaging in gathering a wider government departmental involvement in this research programme. They are in the early stages and at present hoping to engage departments such as DECC, who are responsible for the mitigation aspect and DEFRA for the adaptation side of things. They will also look to engaging the department of transport and BIS, who are already involved with NERC. They are also in talks with CEFAS who are keen to get involved.
Other elements of DEFRA include a climate change team responsible for the risk assessment and climate adaptation programme. Highlighted was a new proposal named RINGO, coordinated by Werner Keutch, Head Office of EU ICOS.
NERC is in a new process of deciding how capital is allocated and is aligning capital funding with current research programmes, national capability programmes and infrastructures within the community.
It is also anticipated that a future NERC Centre LTS-M project would be centered on ICOS.
NERC are involved in anational capability participation, involving the development of a scheme to join capital with science. Last summer there was a call for capital ideas, Jennifer Riley co-ordinated a collective ICOS submission from NOC and UoE, which is now with NERC
General Discussion
We are submitting five stations; PAP site, UK-Caribbean line, Western Channel Observatory, Auchencorth Moss and the Weybourne Atmospheric station.
Bristol University, funded by DECC, have expressed an interest in joining the ICOS, adding an atmospheric station. It was suggested that should any other station, outside of NERC wish to join, they should express their interest at the earliest opportunity. Charlie Morgan will add in an additional section to the MoU detailing additional stations joining and how to sign up.
The Greenhouse Gases programme ends in spring 2017. They are planning a final meeting in March 2017. There will be an AGU session planned in Vienna in April 2016 which will enable members of the terrestrial, atmospheric and marine centres to meet.
The National Oceanography Centre is happy to arrange further discussions and meetings for the community with a view to staying connected.
There is an ICOS Science Conference, being held in Helsinki, 27-29th Sept 2016.
NERC has issued its latest call for highlight topics. It was suggested that a proposition be put forward to NERC tofund a highlight topic, specifically aimed at the top-down greenhouse gases for the UK. Suggestions to write a highlight topic, proposing that NERC fund a 3 year programme to improve top-down GHG. A broad community should get behind Andrew Watson to take it forward.
Date of next meeting
A further meeting has been suggested for autumn 2016 and a formal meeting early 2017. Date to be confirmed.