About the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research

The International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA) was established in the early 1990's to foster global environmental change research. IGFA serves as a forum through which national agencies that fund research on global environmental change identify issues of mutual interest and ways to address these through national and, when appropriate, through coordinated international actions.

Global Change Research (GCR) contributes important knowledge to our understanding of the current changes affecting our social and physical environment. Over the last decade or so, public officials have recognized the importance of GCR, but this attention must be maintained. Since the early 1990's IGFA, IGFA has provided a unique discussion forum for senior officials involved in global change research funding from different countries, linking them with representatives of International Research Programs and leading scientists in the field. Topics of interest to all of the funding agencies, such as priority setting in research funding, information exchange on new initiatives or infrastructural questions, are high on IGFA's agenda.

IGFA is primarily concerned with the four International Global Change Research Programs WCRP, IGBP, IHDP and DIVERSITAS, and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) under the aegis of ICSU. Each program has a central Secretariat (their core projects have international project offices) and a Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) providing overall coordination and leadership to ensure effective implementation of the scientific plan. These infrastructural elements, which yield important added value, mostly fall through the cracks in national procedures for research funding and therefore need special treatment. Consequently, the focus in IGFA is not on the funding of single projects – this is still a matter of national procedures – but on the coordination of the support for the Programs themselves (Secretariats, International Project Offices, etc.).

Because the main emphasis has always been on mutual information exchange, IGFA has been organized in an informal manner, with no binding obligations on its members.

In January of 2010, the Belmont Forum, a group of high-level representatives from major funding agencies across the globe, became the Council of Principals for IGFA, succeeding (replacing the group known as) the Steering Committee. This group is co-Chaired by Dr. Tim Killeen, Assistant Director for Geosciences Sciences at the National Science Foundation, USA, and Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, UK. Associated with this change, a new Working Group has assumed the responsibilities of the (group) formerly known as the IGFA Staff Group to support both the Council of Principals and the full IGFA.

It is intended that IGFA, led by the Belmont Forum/IGFA Council of Principals, and guided by the charge embodied in the "Belmont Challenge," will work proactively and on an action-oriented basis to enhance cooperation and coordination of global environmental change research.·