Future Earth launches 8 initiatives to accelerate global sustainable development: Sustainability for water, food and energy through integrated water information and improved governance

Future Earth has awarded 8 new Fast Track Initiatives and Cluster Activities a total of US$850,400, fully supported by the US National Science Foundation. The new initiatives build on areas of research strength in the existing Global Environmental Change (GEC) projects and programmes, and are intended to kick-start integrated activities and strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration.

The 8 new initiatives are:

• Exploring nitrogen in Future Earth
• Scientific support for IPBES knowledge generation
• What is urban? Global urbanization as viewed from multiple scientific domains
• Bright spots: seeds of a good Anthropocene
• Global biodiversity monitoring, prediction and reporting
• Extreme events and environments from climate to society
• Linking earth system and socio-economic models to predict and manage changes in land use and biodiversity
• Sustainability for water, food and energy through integrated water information and improved governance

Seed funding has also been awarded to two groups of complementary proposals, one on polar issues, one on climate research and services for Africa.