From: Keith Briffa <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>
To: Eystein Jansen <eystein.jansen@geo.uib.no>
Subject: IMPRINT
Date: Tue May 17 17:24:34 2005
Cc: Ib Troen

   Eystein
   We have now heard that Millennium will definitely be funded . This means that  the very
   worst case scenario has been realised - because it means that the EU are not likely to call
   for any palaeoclimate in the next funding round.
   I have to say that, though there is normally an element of randomness in the refereeing of
   EU proposals , that to a large extent is unfortunate but inevitable, I believe strongly
   that the system has let us down very badly in this case.
   It is clear that we, the IMPRINT community were misled ; first  by Ib Troen's direction
   (given publicly in Utrecht) that we should produce a proposal which was of the scale to
   unify the whole Palaeoclimate community , with a specific role to bring data and modelling
   foci to bear on the issue of climate predictability; that we should be careful to not to
   over-emphasise the collection of new data but rather work mostly to consolidate and jointly
   interpret existing data , and that we should formulate a scheme where these are fed
   directly into a hierarchy of modelling experiments that would address causes of climate
   change, model viability and issues of probability of future climate and its causes.
   Secondly, We were misled by the accepting , on the basis of the published call, that the EU
   required IP proposals of ambitious scope , large enough to move the  science of European
   palaeoclimate  forward as a whole and with relevance to globally important issues, with
   aims clearly beyond the scope of "slightly bigger STREPS" . On reading the cursory
   referees' responses to our proposal , I am also moved to express my own opinion that they
   are an insult to the community of researchers that constitute IMPRINT , and an indictment
   of the failure of the referees to address their assessment to the generally publicised aims
   of the IP concept.
   To describe the whole proposal as "too complicated", and to state that there is " no value"
   in the first four workpackages , and most of all , to rate the quality of the consortium as
   4 out of  5 , all require explicit justification well beyond the few lines with which we
   are presented.
   While I have no ill will at all regarding the competing proposal Millennium , I feel that
   the extended IMPRINT community can justifiably ask very serious questions regarding the
   apparent lack of equitable assessment of the two proposals in the light of the published
   call requirements - the efforts of the IMPRINT consortium over recent months at least
   deserve answers as to how , for the sake of 0.5 of a mark , that proposal will be funded
   when it clearly did not address the scope of the original call - in terms of community
   integration, emphasis on wider data consolidation, scope of  model hierarchy, and specific
   addressing of the data/model integration towards the issue of climate
   sensitivity/predictability.
   Expressing these concerns should not be considered "sour grapes " . They are not and I
   congratulate the MILLENNIUM team on having succeeded . They will do valuable research.
   Rather these comments are justified because the review process has not taken account of the
   scope of the IP concept, and the need to invoke a research plan with the necessary breadth
   and expertise (and proven managerial ability - as can be gauged by the assessment of the
   CARBO OCEAN coordination plan) , and because the success of the much more limited
   MILLENNIUM project has already been cited by European officials as justification for the
   lack of any need to fund palaeoclimate research in the next call - effectively cutting off
   the wider palaeoclimate community from EU research support for the next few years.
   I believe we are justified in questioning the operation of the IP concept , and questioning
   it in fora beyond the circle of EU administration, which has , in my opinion has done a
   serious dis-service to our community and palaeoclimate in general. At the very least , the
   "goalposts" regarding IP proposals seem to have been moved and the time of many researchers
   has been wasted.
   Please feel free to forward this message to the rest of our group .
   At 08:26 16/05/2005, Valérie Masson-Delmotte wrote:

     Dear Eystein and Keith,
     I hope that you had a good trip back from Beijing. On our side it was a bit hectic (3
     hours delay in Amsterdam, arrival at midnight in Paris and lost of Pascale's luggage
     without ability to find where it was lost!).
     I have just received this suggestion from a CEA EC representative that there is a RTN
     Marie Curie call for september 8th which has a lot of funding - 220 Meuros. You can
     apply for up to 6 M euros for a series of PhD thesis and postdocs around a real research
     network (up to 3-4 contracts per participant).
     I think that it is an excellent idea... if you and your people, Eystein, would be ready
     to put some more energy in the proposal.
     It would require to re think about the scientific perimeter and the key partners maybe.
     Sincerely
     Valerie.
     Return-Path: <Jean.jouzel@cea.fr>
     Received: from muguet.saclay.cea.fr (muguet.saclay.cea.fr [132.166.192.6])
               by dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr (8.12.11/jtpda-5.4) with ESMTP id j4G6I6mU023329
               for <masson@dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr>; Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:06 +0200
     Received: from cincidele.saclay.cea.fr (cincidele.saclay.cea.fr [132.166.192.111])
             by muguet.saclay.cea.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10/CEAnet-internes.4.0) with ESMTP id
     j4G6I7Tt016417
             for <masson@dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr>; Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:07 +0200 (MEST)
     Received: from agrione.extra.cea.fr (unverified) by cincidele.saclay.cea.fr
      (Content Technologies SMTPRS 4.3.17) with ESMTP id
     <T70f0fd935584a6c06f85c@cincidele.saclay.cea.fr> for <masson@dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr>;
      Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:07 +0200
     Received: from cirse.extra.cea.fr (cirse.extra.cea.fr [132.166.172.102])
             by agrione.extra.cea.fr (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j4G6FXcJ010248;
             Mon, 16 May 2005 08:15:33 +0200
             (envelope-from jouzel@dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr)
     Received: from shiva.jussieu.fr (shiva.jussieu.fr [134.157.0.129])
             by cirse.extra.cea.fr (8.12.10/8.12.10/CEAnet-Internet.4.0) with ESMTP id
     j4G6I5AN028850;
             Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:05 +0200 (MEST)
     Received: from [134.157.81.169] (169.ext.jussieu.fr [134.157.81.169])
               by shiva.jussieu.fr (8.12.11/jtpda-5.4) with ESMTP id j4G6I069096644
               ; Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:03 +0200 (CEST)
     X-Ids: 165
     Mime-Version: 1.0
     X-Sender: jzipsl@mailhost.ipsl.jussieu.fr (Unverified)
     Message-Id: <v04220801beae642fdb0b@[134.157.81.184]>
     In-Reply-To:
      <C10DEAFD7469D611878C00B0D0F37B8B012424B2@sophia.saclay.cea.fr>
     References: <C10DEAFD7469D611878C00B0D0F37B8B012424B2@sophia.saclay.cea.fr>
     Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 07:57:43 -0700
     To: CAMINADE Jean Pierre <CAMINADE@dsmdir.cea.fr>
     From: Jean Jouzel <Jean.jouzel@cea.fr>
     Subject: Re: URGENT : IMPRINT en RTN ?
     Cc: masson@dsm-mail.saclay.cea.fr
     Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
     boundary="============_-1095865763==_ma============"
     X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.7.2
     (shiva.jussieu.fr [134.157.0.165]); Mon, 16 May 2005 08:18:05 +0200 (CEST)
     X-Antivirus: scanned by sophie at shiva.jussieu.fr
     X-Miltered: at dsm-mail with ID 42883B1E.000 by Joe's j-chkmail
     ([1]http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)!
     X-Miltered: at shiva.jussieu.fr with ID 42883B18.001 by Joe's j-chkmail
     ([2]http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)!
     X-CEA-Source: externe
     X-CEA-DebugSpam: 13%
     X-CEA-Spam-Report: The following antispam rules were triggered by this message:
                     Rule                  Score Description
                     DATE_IN_FUTURE_06_12  1.300 Date: is 6 to 12 hours after Received: date
     X-CEA-Spam-Hits: DATE_IN_FUTURE_06_12 1.3, __CT 0, __CTYPE_HAS_BOUNDARY 0,
     __CTYPE_MULTIPART 0, __CTYPE_MULTIPART_ALT 0, __HAS_MSGID 0, __MIME_VERSION 0,
     __SANE_MSGID 0
     X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.64 (2004-01-11) on dsm-mail.cea.fr
     X-Spam-Level:
     X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.9 required=4.0 tests=BAYES_00,DATE_IN_FUTURE_06_12
             autolearn=no version=2.64
     Cher Jean - Pierre,
             Excuse-moi de réagir un peu tardivement (je reviens de Chine).
             Mais surtout merci pour ce courrier et l'aide proposée ; je pense vraiment que
     cela vaudrait le coup de le relancer sous la forme RTN et que l'obtention de post-docs
     correspond bien à l'idée d'imprint (exploitation des données, modélisation).
             Pour faire avancer les choses je mets copie à Valérie Masson - Delmotte une des
     chevilles ouvrières d'IMPRINT au LSCE. Je suggère à valérie de te contacter directement.
             Bien amicalement        Jean

     Bonjour Jean,
     J'ai appris ce matin au GTN environnement qu'IMPRINT n'avait pas été accepté.
     Avez-vous pensé à le relancer sous la forme d'un (ou de plusieurs) RTN-Marie Curie
     (Research Training Network) pour l'appel du 8 septembre qui est richement doté (220
     MEuros ! du jamais vu !); le montant demandé peut aller jusqu'à 6 MEuros, pas très loin
     d'IMPRINT.
     Il s'agit de proposer une série de post-docs et de thèses articulés autour d'un
     véritable projet de recherche; environ 3 à 4 CDD pour chaque participant.
     La DSM a une expérience dans ce domaine (Greencycles rien qu'au LSCE); on peut t'aider à
     te monter un projet taillé sur mesures.
     Aujourd'hui je ne vois que cette solution car manifestement la ligne "modélisation
     climat" ne repassera pas au 4ème appel et je ne vois rien d'autre d'aussi bien "doté"
     dans le paysage du FP6 (qui est sur sa fin).
     Cordialement
     JPC
     <[3]http://promos.hotbar.com/promos/promodll.dll?RunPromo&El=&SG=&RAND=25607&partner=hot
     bar>

                              Jean Jouzel
               Directeur de l'Institut Pierre Simon Laplace
                 - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin
     Bâtiment d'Alembert, 5 Boulevard d'Alembert, 78280 Guyancourt
           tél :  33 (0) 1 39 25 58 16, fax :  33 (0) 1 39 25 58 22
             Portable phone : 33 (0) 684759682
                - Université Pierre et Marie Curie,
     Tour 45-46, 3ème étage, 303, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05
       Bureau 303,   e-mail : jzipsl@ipsl.jussieu.fr  01 44 27 49 92
                             ***********
         Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement,
                      UMR CEA-CNRS 1572
     CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, FRANCE
        tél :  33 (0) 1 69 08 77 13, fax :  33 (0) 1 69 08 77 16
               e-mail : jouzel@lsce.saclay.cea.fr
     <br>
     <br>
     </blockquote></x-html>

   --
   Professor Keith Briffa,
   Climatic Research Unit
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K.

   Phone: +44-1603-593909
   Fax: +44-1603-507784
   [4]http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/

References

   1. http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr/
   2. http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr/
   3. http://promos.hotbar.com/promos/promodll.dll?RunPromo&El=&SG=&RAND=25607&partner=hotbar
   4. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/

