On the 8th September, the ARC announced the new Centres of Excellence. Of the nine announced, one of special interest to the ANU Climate Institute is the new ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (2017-2023, $30.05 M). This centre includes all major Australian University physical climate programs. The centre is led by Professor Andy Pitman from UNSW and involves major inputs from four other Universities (ANU, Melbourne, Monash, Tasmania). The centre includes the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO as well as a number of major international partners (NASA, JPL, ETH, UKMO, GFDL-Princeton). The new centre will build on the ground-breaking research of the earlier ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (2011-2018).
As the name suggests, the new centre will focus on physical phenomenon like droughts, heat waves, extreme rainfall and so on. The ANU contributions are primarily from RSES (5/6) with a contribution from RSB (1/6) and includes Chief Investigators from those schools (Prof Michael Roderick, RSES/RSB; A/Prof Andy Hogg, RSES, A/Prof Nerilie Abram, RSES). The new centre also involves associate investigators (including two DECRA holders; Dr Bishakhdatta Gayen, RSES; Dr Sophie Lewis, Fenner; and includes Prof Graham Farquhar, RSB).
In terms of a National outlook, given the (ongoing) troubles with CSIRO climate science (and public good science more generally) the awarding of this centre is, in many respects, a big relief.
As the new Centre is progressively rolled out in 2017 we look forward to involvement from an ever growing number of ANU staff and students across the campus.
For further information, or to pursue opportunities for involvement, please contact one of the chief investigators.