Future Earth Global Hub in Colorado – latest developments

From the 10^th to the 13^th March 2015 Paul Shrivastava, Executive Director of Future Earth, visited the Future Earth Global Hub that is being established in Boulder, Colorado, co-located at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Paul Shrivastava held meetings with local members of the Secretariat Implementation Team, Jason Neff and Dennis Ojima, and with both universities’ senior administration teams, faculty, and institute directors.

This included meetings with Colorado State University Provost and Executive Vice President Rick Miranda and Vice President for Research Alan S. Rudolph to explore ways of involving Colorado Front Range companies with Future Earth, and with Provost Russ Moore and Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture at the University of Colorado, Boulder, to explore Future Earth collaborations with national science organizations and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Shrivastava also met with Maria Uhle, Program Director for International Activities at NSF and a member of the Belmont Forum, part of the Governing Council for Future Earth, to discuss funding opportunities for Future Earth projects. He also met with Thomas Bogdan, President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and Ken Reardon, Director of the Energy Institute at Colorado State University.  

Paul Shrivastava also met the Mayor of Boulder, Matthew Appelbaum, to discuss joint working to highlight the work of the US global hub. The Colorado hub has recently been awarded a grant to cover base expenses for operationalizing the hub. Hiring of a Global Hub Director is being initiated.

The Hub in Colorado is one of 5 hubs worldwide that will be home to the globally distributed Future Earth Secretariat, which will function as one entity. The other global hubs are located in Montreal (Canada), Paris (France), Stockholm (Sweden) and Tokyo (Japan). This structure is complemented by regional hubs worldwide.