Roundtable Discussions

The colloquium will include several keynote speakers as well as four roundtable discussions. For each roundtable discussion, session chairs will introduce the respective topic and relevant issues after which all participants will be able to engage and address each topic in an open discussion. The four roundtable discussions will be centered on the following topics:

1. Collaborative Models for Climate Change R&D
This roundtable discussion will address implementation of R&D programs and projects with a particular focus on collaboration and coordination among industry, the national laboratories, and universities. It will include brief presentations on four examples of collaborative R&D programs: the Next Generation Nuclear Project (NGNP); the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI); the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center; and the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA). These presentations are intended to allow participants to compare and contrast different collaborative approaches and explore which models are likely to be most successful for climate change R&D.

2. R&D Management Structures
There are a number of possible Federal-level management structures/models for climate-related R&D, such as DARPA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Transportation Research Board, and quasi-governmental corporations. This roundtable discussion will address the management challenges associated with a significant scale-up in R&D resources, as well as the management structures that are best-suited to the scale and scope of the climate change R&D challenge.

3. Funding Structures to Ensure R&D Success
The ability to plan, fund, and execute multi-year projects is key to ensuring a robust and successful climate change R&D program. As such, funding structures must ensure that a consistent and adequate stream of revenues is available. Issues to consider include consistent and flexible funding structures and interactions with the annual appropriations process.

4. R&D Prioritization: Program Content and Portfolio Design
A well-designed climate-related R&D portfolio must address several issues, such as the relative emphasis on basic vs. applied research; ensuring an effective transition for technologies from the R&D phase to the demonstration and deployment phase; balancing mitigation vs. adaptation research; and allowing for interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research along with the transformational research that will ultimately be needed to address climate change. This roundtable discussion will focus on the process of developing a climate-change R&D portfolio, including how to address each of these elements, measuring performance, and modifying the portfolio over time.