FACCE MACSUR Kickoff-Meeting

Abstract

The FACCE MACSUR kickoff meeting took place 15-16 October 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The date for the meeting was moved from July to October to accommodate the participation of most institutions involved in MACSUR in a sufficiently large meeting place. One hundred and forty-five persons participated in the event. The meeting was organized as a workshop to allow for expanded time for interaction among the participants of the 73 involved institutions.

The keynote lectures by Tim Benton (Global Food Security and University of Leeds) and Tim Carter (Finnish Environment Institute – SYKE) set the background by describing the need for assessing future impacts on food security and how to deal with the uncertainty associated with data, models, and projections.

In parallel sessions participants discussed the organization of the work in the project and in each Theme, common approaches to answering the questions, selection of scenarios, involvement of stakeholders, and how the results will be presented. The results of the four cross-cutting workshops are documented in separate reports (M-H3.3.1 through M-H3.3.4) and serve as the starting point for more detailed planning over the following months.

A post-hoc survey filled in by 75 attendees showed that the workshop had answered many organizational issues. But since the project has only started, many more issues must be discussed and clarified in the coming months, the survey showed. Overall, two thirds of the participants were satisfied with the organization oft he workshop.