CCCA-News 03/2018 - Climate Change Centre Austria

Dear CCCA-News subscriber,

here's an overview of the topics covered in the current CCCA-News:

Climathon 2018 in Graz
Visit of a delegation from universities in Gaza and the West Bank to the Data Centre
3 new Fact Sheets
New Flagship Project on the circular economy of plastics
meetPASS: meeting the Paris Agreement and Supporting Sustainability Online Consultation
State of Lower Austria seeking experts in the field of biodiversity/ecosystem services
Publication: On the CCCA Dynamic Citation Tool, June 2018
Volume on the Kerner von Marilaun Symposium "Environment and Society – Challenges for Science and Policy"
Austrian Climate Research Programme: 4.3 million euros for climate research

You'll also find the latest calls, job listings and events!

We hope you enjoy the read!

CCCA News

Climathon 2018 in Graz

In more than 100 cities on six continents, entrepreneurs, students, programmers and policy-makers come together to work on new, creative solutions to local climate change challenges.

For more information, click on flyer!

Visit of a delegation from universities in Gaza and the West Bank to the Data Centre

As part of an exchange of information and experience on data management and the development of CCCA's research data repository, we had the opportunity to welcome a delegation from Gaza and the West Bank at the CCCA Data Centre.

The meeting was organised by TU Wien as part of an ERASMUS exchange and Research Data Alliance Austria activities. Representatives from various institutions at universities in Gaza and the West Bank found out about data management, organisation and software at the CCCA Data Centre, as well as the expertise involved in building a national research data repository. Alongside insights into the technical implementation — such as open data, licences, data storage and visualisation — the focus was on the question of synergistic use of a cross-institutional implementation, as seen at CCCA.

Even seemingly straightforward questions, such as which dataset was our first, sparked an engaging debate. It became clear once again that initiating the sustainable development of a research data infrastructure is neither a quick nor easy process, but rather one that requires patience and perseverance. After an interesting afternoon in a pleasant atmosphere, we'd be delighted to build on these contacts and pursue further collaborations.

3 new Fact Sheets

Under the titles "Target group-specific climate communication with young people", "Climate communication in Austria – Actors, target groups and key topics" and "Unwanted side effects of climate change communication", three further Fact Sheets have been produced as part of the K3 Congress (September 2017) and can be downloaded at Fact Sheets.

K3 was supported by the Climate and Energy Fund, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and the Economy, the State of Salzburg, and the University of Salzburg.

News & General

New Flagship Project on the circular economy of plastics

With Montanuniversität Leoben and CCCA, two Austrian partners are represented in the recently launched Flagship Initiative of EIT-Climate KIC aimed at reducing plastic waste. Nearly 50 million tonnes of plastic are used in the EU each year, with only 40% currently being recycled.

Increasing the recycling rate, promoting the use of bio-based plastics, and reducing plastic consumption not only contributes to a cleaner environment, but also has significant potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to current estimates, every additional tonne of recycled plastic saves two tonnes of CO₂.

More information: http://www.climate-kic.org/areas-of-focus/sustainable-production-systems/our-initiatives/ecircular/

meetPASS: meeting the Paris Agreement and Supporting Sustainability Online Consultation

The Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) and the Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftliche Strukturforschung (GWS) are investigating, within the ACRP project meetPASS, how achieving the Paris Climate Agreement affects the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As part of the project, an online consultation is being conducted in English. The aim is to assess how strong the link is between various climate protection measures and selected SDG targets in Austria.

A questionnaire has been designed for this purpose, which can be filled in at www.meetpass.at/konsultation.

Deadline: 30 June 2018.

State of Lower Austria seeking experts in the field of biodiversity/ecosystem services

The Research, Technology and Innovation Programme (FTI Programme) of the State of Lower Austria covers 10 thematic areas: http://www.noe.gv.at/noe/Wissenschaft-Forschung/f_FTI_Programm.html

One of these ten thematic areas is "Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services" (http://www.noe.gv.at/noe/Wissenschaft-Forschung/Oekosysteme_und_Oekosystemdienstleistungen1.pdf)

The thematic area is led by the Nature Conservation Department (contact person: DI Günther Gamper). With a view to challenges such as climate change and changes in our social and economic systems, a workshop will be held to discuss possible future priorities and research questions — for this, the State of Lower Austria is still looking for 2 experts from the CCCA network who would like to contribute to the process outlined above!

The workshop will take place either at the end of July or the end of August (the date has not yet been confirmed) — please get in touch at stefan.ropac@ccca.ac.at if you're interested in taking part, and let us know which of the two date options would work for you (or suit you better)! We'll then pass on your interest to the State of Lower Austria, where further coordination of the workshop will take place.

Publication: On the CCCA Dynamic Citation Tool, June 2018

On 8 June, a chapter from the CCCA Data Centre on data management and the tool developed here for dynamic data citation (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-72434-8_13) was published in a Springer compendium "Service Oriented Mapping - Changing Paradigm in Map Production and Geoinformation Management".

From large datasets, such as the Austrian climate scenarios, small sub-datasets (e.g. only model results for the federal state of Carinthia) can be generated and made accessible via the CCCA data server. In doing so, all meta-information, such as authorship and model descriptions, is inherited whilst the geographical location is simultaneously adjusted, making this sub-dataset citable. A preview is available via google.books. Feel free to get in touch with us for further details.

Volume from the Kerner von Marilaun Symposium "Environment and Society – Challenges for Science and Policy"

The volume from the Kerner von Marilaun Symposium "Environment and Society – Challenges for Science and Policy" has now also been published in KIÖS Opinions and can be downloaded for free at https://www.oeaw.ac.at.

Current call for proposals

Austrian Climate Research Programme: 4.3 million euros for climate research

For the 11th time, the Climate and Energy Fund, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism (BMNT), is launching the call for the internationally established "Austrian Climate Research Programme".

The funding programme supports research projects dealing with the impacts of climate change and the necessary adaptation measures. The ACRP call thus provides the scientific basis for implementing the Climate and Energy Strategy #mission2030 of the Austrian Federal Government and for putting the Paris Climate Agreement into practice.

The call is open for applications until 1 February 2019, 12:00 noon.

With the "Austrian Climate Research Programme", the Climate and Energy Fund supports a broad range of research topics in order to establish the foundations for important climate policy decisions. Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Köstinger: "Climate research is an important basis for achieving our ambitious goals as set out in the Climate and Energy Strategy #mission2030.

The ACRP funding programme is making a decisive contribution to strengthening climate expertise in Austria." Experts assume that limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels — as targeted by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement — represents a very significant societal challenge. Ingmar Höbarth, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund: "Science is being called upon by the Paris Agreement. It needs to provide answers to the most pressing questions on climate change and climate change adaptation.

With our ACRP funding programme, we're delivering the scientific basis for political, economic and social decisions." In detail, the focus of this funding call goes beyond the national impacts of climate change. What's needed are concrete approaches to adaptation and preventive measures.

One key aspect is the consideration of the financial sector and its relevance to climate policy questions. ACRP 2018 – thematic areas:

Understanding the climate system and consequences of climate change
Specific support for Austria's policy makers
Systemic transformation - the human dimension
Governance and institutions - towards systemic transformation

In addition to the announced thematic areas, an APCC Special Report on "Land and forestry land use, soil management and climate change", endowed with 300,000 euros, will be funded as part of the ACRP call.

www.klimafonds.gv.at

You can find further calls for proposals under Current Calls.

Job Listings

Project Assistant without doctorate - Universität Graz (01.07.2018)
University Assistant in Atmospheric and Cryosphere Sciences - Universität Innsbruck (11.07.2018)
Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy - Universität Wien (31.07.2018)

For more information on these and other current job listings, check out our job board!

We'd also ask you to send us any current job vacancies so that we can post them on our job board.

Upcoming events

In the CCCA calendar you'll find plenty more information on climate (research)-related events. If you'd like to publicise events this way, please send the relevant details to info@ccca.ac.at.