INTAS Strategic Scientific Workshop “Towards integrated multidisciplinary study of the Northern Eurasia climatic Hot Spots”, Tomsk, 23 – 25 July 2004.

Organizers/Chairs Alexander Baklanov (DMI), Gerard Begni (MEDIAS-France), Evgueni Gordov (SCERT), Martin Heimann (MPI for Bio-Geochemistry), Vasily Lykosov (Institute of Numerical Mathematics RAS), Evgueni Vaganov (Institute of Forest SB RAS), Anatoly Shvidenko (IASA) and Sergej Zilitinkevich (Uppsala University),
with a support of SCERT and MEDIAS-France

The strategic three days' workshop is one of the major focuses of the International Conference on Environmental Observations, Modeling and Information Systems ENVIROMIS-2004 to be held in Tomsk, 17-25 July 2004. It will be devoted to detailed discussion of the climatic Hot Spots recently detected in the Northern Eurasia and their interrelations with regional and global environment. Being a region where climate variations are most pronounced and whose potential influences the Earth System operation as a whole, it has attracted recently attention of number of research and funding organizations, notably Siberian Branch of RAS, NASA, IGBP and FP6 ESD Programme.

The workshop will bring together the scientific community at large involving scientists working in the region with representatives of national and international organizations in science, industries and other groups relevant for the aims of the workshop. The workshop will be used to present and to discuss relevant national, notably funded by RAS and SB RAS, projects and international projects, notably those supported by IGBP, FP5/FP6 and INTAS.

The workshop program will comprise four key elements, which are half-day sessions with 20-minute oral presentations by coordinators and key contractors of results of performed and ongoing national and international projects, and presentations of future activities in the area. In particular, the EC FP5 projects SIBERIA 2, TCOS-Siberia, FUMAPEX and ISIREMM, as well as SB RAS Integrated projects “Siberian Geosphere-Biosphere Program”, “Complex Monitoring of Great Vasyugan Bog” and “Environmental Problems of Siberian Cities” will be presented by their coordinators. Additionally a special session devoted to new opportunities open for NIS scientists within FP6 and other international initiatives, as well as a poster session presenting results obtained within performed INTAS funded projects will be run as well. Known experts in RTD cooperation of NIS and EC within the Framework Programme will be invited to describe to participants the opportunities open with FP6 for NIS involvement into European RTD projects. Also NASA NEESPI opportunities and IGBP and Earth System Science Partnership concept of Integrated Regional Study are planned to be presented as well.

Being addressed to one of research priorities of the IGBP and FP6 ESD Programme, the workshop will engage the participants in in-depth and forward looking discussions about optimal ways to address scientific research topics and potential areas of cooperation. It should allow the community to define future scientific priorities to this end, as well as to identify research groups and projects in a position to become a backbone of future Integrated Regional Study under auspice of IGBP to be integrated into the ERA.

For more detailed information please visit the ENVIROMIS-2004 Conference site at http://scert.ru/en/conferences/enviromis2004/ .

We hope to see you in Tomsk in July, 2004.