More cash for climate research

22 November 2000

Today's Science Budget announcement that an additional £39m is available for environmental sciences over the next three years is welcomed by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Professor John Lawton, NERC's Chief Executive, says, "I am delighted that this money is available for environmental science. NERC will work in partnership with the other research councils to make advances in the priority areas which have been identified. There will, however, be a few hard decisions to make for NERC's own funding priorities."

One of the areas where NERC will inject extra cash is a programme that investigates rapid climate change in NW Europe. The UK is currently 5-10°C warmer than expected for a country this far north. This is because ocean currents reaching the UK from warmer parts of the Atlantic raise the air temperature. This results in a transfer of heat to western Europe which is equivalent to the power generated by about one million nuclear power stations.

There is evidence that this 'conveyor belt' that brings warm surface water northwards and cold deep water southwards has either weakened or switched off in the past, coinciding with rapid transitions into cooler or ice-age-type climates. Some scientists believe that such a change may be triggered within the next 10-100 years, possibly driven by global warming. The result could be a dramatic drop in average temperatures in the UK of 5-10°C even though, globally, the Earth may be warming.

NERC's challenge is to find out what may cause a dramatic switch in the 'conveyor'. The programme will take and analyse measurements from the North Atlantic and use them to understand better the present currents and their sensitivity to change. The programme will investigate via models the likelihood and potential causes of any changes to the 'conveyor' and try to predict what the consequences might be for the UK.

Another priority which will benefit from the additional funding is 'e-science'. £7m over three years will allow NERC to invite bids in key developing areas of environmental science such as climate change. The complexities of Earth system science mean that we need highly sophisticated computer models to bring together the vast amounts of information on all aspects of the oceans, land, ice and the atmosphere. We need to incorporate the complex information to help us predict future climate change more accurately than we can at present.

The models must be capable of combining complex information into relatively simple outputs that we can use in a practical way. A new generation of technologies, both hardware and software, is needed to handle this type of data.

Other priority areas for NERC are:

Genomics. £6m has been made available for research to investigate gene function and behaviour in relation to the environmental services, such as air and water quality, provided by communities of plants, animals and microbes.
Sustainable Technologies & Energy. NERC will take the lead across the research councils in developing a research agenda in the area of technology for sustainability and energy.
A Virtual Centre for Atmospheric Science. Building on the opportunities of e-science, a new virtual centre for UK atmospheric sciences will be developed to address the research challenges in a more co-ordinated way.
Basic Technologies. Our ability to model and predict environmental processes depends critically on advances in basic technology. Examples include developing affordable smart sensors for use in underwater submersibles and low cost Earth orbiting satellites.
Research Centre Infrastructure Fund. £10m is being made available over two years to invest in buildings and equipment for NERC Research Centres to undertake strategic research and provide facilities for the wider community.

NERC will work in partnership with the other research councils to explore new developments and deliver research programmes in these areas.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Press release: 21/00

More cash for climate research

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