Introduction
In late 2009 the Belmont Forum, a group of major funders of international global change research, invited the International Council for Science (ICSU) to conduct an analysis of the international research capability required to respond to the challenge of delivering knowledge to support human action and adaptation to regional environmental change. This challenge was named the Belmont Challenge and requires regional and decadal prediction, advanced observing systems and the integration of the social sciences.
To address this task, ICSU set up a panel consisting of 15 international experts with Guy Brasseur as the chair (Annex 1). While the panel members served in their personal capacity, the report was able to benefit from, and build upon, the collective wisdom of a large community with which they interact. The analysis draws on the existing synthesis and assessment products of the broader scientific community, the experiences and strategic plans of the global change programmes and other related international and national activities, and many peer-reviewed papers. This report summarizes the panel’s findings.