About the Belmont Forum

The challenges being presented to the Global Change Research (GCR) agenda are changing and intensifying. These include: evidence of accelerating rates of global change beyond the predictions in the IPCC 4th Assessment Report; changes in the funding landscape as a result of the economic downturn, with some communities facing public spending constraints and others receiving fiscal stimuli for science; and international organizations such as the International Council for Science (ICSU) and International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA) undertaking refocusing exercises. Further changes resulted from new political imperatives that emerged from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) CoP/MoP.

In recognition of this shifting landscape, in June 2009, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) hosted a small conference of principal officials of key environment and geosciences funding agencies, in the USA. The objectives of this 'Belmont Conference' were to identify GCR priorities that might benefit from better cooperation and how best to address these.

Participants in the Belmont Conference agreed on the need for an improved forum for (1) strengthening engagement between the research funding agencies and the academic research community as represented by ICSU and (2) improving coordination of early phase engagement on GCR strategies and priorities in order to improve co-design, co-alignment, and co-funding of major research programs. They agreed that the Belmont Group, augmented by members from key emerging economies, would provide an ideal structure for this purpose, because its small and specific membership could promote frank discussion and rapid decision-making about the planning, support and implementation of GCR. To this end, the Group established the Belmont Forum and agreed that this Forum should meet at least annually and more frequently at the outset.

In October of 2009, the Belmont Forum became the Council of Principals for IGFA, succeeding the IGFA Steering Committee. This group is co-Chaired by Dr. Albert van Jaarsveld, President and CEO of the National Research Foundation of South Africa and Dr. Patrick Monfray, Deputy Head, Environment and Biological Resources department, The French National Research Agency, France. Associated with this change, a new Working Group, composed of senior working level staff from Forum member countries has assumed the responsibilities of 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.