Appendix B
USGCRP Transmission Memo
| Date: | May 20, 2022 |
| From: | Mike Kuperberg, Executive Director of the U. S. Global Change Research Program |
| To: | The Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine |
| Topic: | Advisory Committee Review of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Decadal Strategic Plan (DSP) for 2022-2031 |
| CC: | Jane Lubchenco, Deputy Director for Climate and Environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Co-Chair of the Committee on the Environment, National Science and Technology Council |
Thank you for the time and expertise you bring to the Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (Advisory Committee or AC) as part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Your input is extremely valuable to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP or Program) and to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. To advise USGCRP in finalizing its decadal strategic plan (DSP), NASEM has issued the following Statement of Task to the AC:
The Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) will conduct an independent review of the USGCRP’s draft strategic plan concurrent with the public comment period. Per guidance to the USGCRP, the published decadal plan will be approximately 30 pages and written for a general audience. The review will address the following questions about the draft plan:
- Is the plan consistent with the direction provided in Section 104 of the Global Change Research Act?
- Are the plan’s goals clear and appropriate? Do they reflect the Nation’s needs for information on climate and global change?
- Does the plan show a clear strategy for coordination and integration that involves multiple disciplines and multiple agencies?
- Does the plan communicate effectively with both the public and the scientific community?
- Are there any factual errors, or major content areas missing from the plan that should be present if the Program is to achieve its overall vision and mission?
Attached please find the draft Plan for your review; it was also released today for an eight-week public comment period. With this memo, we provide some background and context to accompany the Statement of Task for the review. We also look forward to meeting with you next
week as you begin your work, with time for questions about anything in this memo and discussion with the DSP authors.
Overview
- The Global Change Research Act of 1990 (GCRA) directed USGCRP to develop a decadal strategic plan, including what should be included in that initial decadal plan. The GCRA also directed USGCRP to submit a revised plan at least once every three years thereafter.
- The GCRA’s highest level guidance for the decadal plan is to “establish, for the 10-year period beginning in the year the Plan is submitted, the goals and priorities for Federal global change research which most effectively advance scientific understanding of global change and provide usable information on which to base policy decisions relating to global change.”
- USGCRP has chosen to produce a decadal strategic plan on a regular basis, followed by triennial updates, as the development of a decadal plan allows for longer-term visioning for the Program and encourages convergence among the agencies.
- Our guidance for the current DSP is to write for a general audience, make it short (~ 30 pages) and high level, and cover a 10-year time horizon.
- The DSP reflects what the USGCRP collectively wants to do, but doesn’t dictate to individual agencies in their planning or activities.
- The GCRA emphasizes USGCRP’s role in research and in provision of information for use. USGCRP’s work is thus meant to be policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive.
- Annual implementation of the DSP is dependent on agency budgets.
Report Development
The DSP was developed by a subgroup of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (the SGCR, effectively the USGCRP “Board of Directors”). This subgroup, the Executive Steering Committee, worked closely with the USGCRP Executive Director and the SGCR at each and every step. Critical input to the process included:
- The AC report on “Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031.”
- Public comments on the prospectus for the DSP (this is the first time a prospectus was made available for public comment).
- Comments and discussion with USGCRP Interagency Groups and at agency listening sessions, where many participants were from non-member agencies.
- Comments and discussion during the NASEM public engagement sessions on global change needs and risks in the areas of water, health, energy, food, and transportation/infrastructure.
- Comments from the SGCR, agencies, and Interagency Groups on the first order draft.
- Comments from the agencies, OSTP, and other White House components during clearance for public comment and NASEM review
How USGCRP Works
USGCRP is a Federal-only confederation, whose functions, including those below, are guided by laws, policies and long-standing practices.
- The Federal Advisory Committee Act created Federal advisory committees (FAC) as the mechanism for Federal entities to hold on-going interactions with non-Federal groups; per the GCRA, NASEM effectively functions as a FAC for USGCRP.
- The USGCRP helps coordinate implementation of agency budgets in the area of climate and global change, but does not coordinate, dictate, or evaluate agency budget submissions.
- USGCRP’s scope (and thus, the scope of the DSP) aligns with the GCRA. USGCRP coordinates global change research, which is defined in Section 2 of the GCRA.
- USGCRP coordinates research across the agencies but doesn’t commission or conduct it.
- USGCRP member agencies have a very wide range of missions and mandates; a coalition of the willing is required for any activities to move forward.
- Federal employees who participate in USGCRP inter-agency coordination activities typically do so voluntarily on top of their agency jobs; the personnel of the National Coordination Office are the only full-time USGCRP- dedicated employees in the Program.
Review Guidelines
Your review will be most helpful to USGCRP if:
- Suggestions for additional content areas or new language are accompanied by suggestions for deletions, to maintain total page length.
- Any major omission you note is accompanied by suggested high-level content that should be included.
- Any scientific errors that you flag are accompanied by suggestions on how to fix them.
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