cc: simon Tett <simon.tett@ed.ac.uk>, "'Gabi Hegerl'" <Gabi.Hegerl@ed.ac.uk>, Tim Osborn <t.osborn@uea.ac.uk>, Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>, Keith Briffa <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>
date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:43:13 +0100
from: Sandy Tudhope <sandy.tudhope@ed.ac.uk>
subject: Re: NERC Climate Consortium bid-meeting in July?
to: Chris Turney <turneychris@gmail.com>

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Hi Chris,

Very sorry for the slow reply;  it has been a particularly hectic end to 
the academic year here.

Gabi, Simon and I are all keen on the idea of possible projects in the 
area you've identified, and with the researchers you've drawn together.  
But there are a couple of practical 'buts'!:

a)  Neither Simon nor Gabi can make it for your proposed early July date.

b)  We are all particularly interested in developing a tighter focus, 
likely around 18th and 19th century, i.e., extending the 
pre-instrumental data set, particularly for the tropics and southern 
Hemisphere, and using the combined data and modelling approach to 
address questions of climate sensitivity to natural forcings, forced and 
unforced variability, tropical-extratropical linkages and more (all 
embedded within your outline I know!).  I am also aware (from my recent 
membership of the NERC Consortium Panel) just how important it is to 
demonstrate that a Consortium approach is the ONLY viable way to tackle 
a problem ... if it could be tackled by a number of standard grants then 
it does not qualify as 'good' consortium material.  So, I think we feel 
that while a Consortium approach might well work (indeed we have thought 
a little bit about an iterative approach to data-collection, analysis, 
and modelling where each step informs the next), it may also be the case 
that some of the topics in your outline would be more successfully 
tackled by standard grant approaches with sub-sets of us.  I know that 
this is probably exactly the sort of discussion you were hoping to have 
in July;  I'm just letting you know the areas we currently feel the most 
excited about.

SUGGESTION:  Depending on the uptake you've had to your July meeting 
suggestion, could we suggest, as an alternate, the possibility of 
holding off until September when everybody is (hopefully) back from the 
summer?  We'd be very happy to host in Edinburgh if that is any help.

If you decide to go ahead with the July meeting, i.e., strong uptake 
from the rest of the group, then I will do my very best to attend.

Let me know ... and if it would be easier to discuss some of this by 
phone suggest a time and number and I'll give you a call.

(I'm ccing this to the UEA group as we've had discussions about the 
merits of an 18th-19th century focus for quite a while).

Many thanks again for taking the lead in this.

All the very best,

Sandy (and for Simon and Gabi).


Chris Turney wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Apologies for the delay.  Things have been manic with admin and teaching.  That 
> said, I think we're starting to make some progress with the NERC proposal. 
>  We've tried to take on board all of the comments you kindly sent but it became 
> clearly fairly early on that we need to get together to thrash out where to from 
> here.  
>
> As you know, the NERC Consortium bids need approval of a 2 pager before a 
> complete bid can be submitted.  With this in mind, Peter Cox and I are aiming to 
> secure funds from the University of Exeter to host a 2 day getaway to thrash out 
> a finalised 2 pager, outlining precisely what we want to do and justifying a 
> Consortium bid.  The aim would be to submit this to NERC at the end of the 2 day 
> . (Ultimately, we're hoping we might submit the completed, final bid for the 1 
> December deadline).  We're just putting the finishing touches to get the funds 
> for this meeting but in advance of this I wanted to check on your availability 
> in early July?  If we leave it much later we hit field season and from September 
> are back into another academic year of madness. I was wondering about sometime 
> during the 1-3 July.  Any good?
>
> Simon and Tim: It would be great to have you on board so please let me know if 
> you're interested.  No worries if not.
>
> Just for reference, I've attached a revised version of the text.  Hope this 
> helps to kick things off.
>
> With very best wishes,
>
> Chris
> ****************************************************
> *Professor Chris Turney FRSA FRGS*
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-- 
_____________________________________________________________________

Professor Sandy Tudhope,
School of GeoSciences,
Grant Institute,
Edinburgh University,
West Mains Road,	
Edinburgh EH9 3JW,U.K.

Tel: +44 131 650 8508	
      +44 131 650 4842 (sec.)
Fax: +44 131 668 3184
e-mail: sandy.tudhope@ed.ac.uk


The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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