cc: hqpo@nerc.ac.uk,m.hulme@uea
date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 09:36:39 +0000
from: Trevor Davies <t.d.davies@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Tyndall Centre - MoU with Julian Hunt's planned centre
to: dab@nerc.ac.uk

Dear David,

CONFIDENTIAL

We (Mike Hulme and I) and members of the Applied Research for Climate
Change consortium (UCL, Imperial College and University of Reading) have
met to consider if we can arrive at a "joint statement" for ARCC's
application to the Faraday Scheme. Attached is what we have come up with so
far. This is something of an attempt at the impossible, but we have striven
to be constructive and, in the circumstances, is probably the best we can
do. We have made it clear that, from our point of view, any such agreement
should be approved by the Research Councils.

We are concerned because, irrespective of what the document actually says,
it is quite clear that Lord Hunt (who is leading up ARCC) persists with a
very imprecise appreciation of what the Tyndall Centre is about, and what
ARCC's remit should be (we have been dealing with one of his colleagues
over this document). His starting point was that the Tyndall Centre will
concentrate on "climate prediction" and ARCC will consider the "impacts".
Despite this misconception, ARCC has not considered how it complements/cuts
across UKCIP. Although we succeeded in convincing him that it was the
Hadley Centre, and not we, who will continue to be involved in climate
prediction, he seemed to find it difficult to appreciate exactly where our
thrust lies. For example, he found it hard to understand that we do not
intend to feed directly into government "operational" policy, and equally
difficult to understand that we intend to work closely with non-government
stakeholders. We do not believe that this was due to any failing on our
part in our attempts to explain what our objectives are. Nevertheless, we
have reconciled ourselves to the fact that there should be an agreement,
even if it will have to be based on a rather contrived separation of our
and ARCC's apparent priorities.

We shall be very grateful if you are able to read through this, and
indicate if you are comfortable with it.

With Best Wishes,


Trevor & Mike
Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\Tyndall3.doc"


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Professor Trevor D. Davies
Dean, School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom

Tel.  +44 1603 592836
Fax.  +44 1603 507719
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