Co-alignment

JPI Climate is directed at building the European Research Area through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national research programmes in participating EU member states and associated countries. To achieve this, alignment of national research funding policies is needed. JPI Climate Governing Board jointly aims to have more insight in the way how national funding agencies develop, plan and implement their funding policies, what their priority themes are and how they already cooperate with each other in different programmes. The JPI Climate Governing Board also wants to effectively support the national funding agencies in adopting relevant joint research themes and in efficiently working together, addressing the challenges posed by the unavoidable differences in national funding procedures and timing of programmes.

There are three main strategic questions to be answered:

• How can scientists in problem-oriented climate research cooperate better in future? 
• How can JPI Climate help to develop effective funding policies for joint research activities on priority problem-oriented climate research themes?
• How can JPI Climate foster the allocation of research funds from national and European funding agencies to relevant joint research?

To answer these strategic questions, the following concrete questions have to be dealt with: 

• What are the priority themes that we would like funding agencies to focus on in future when supporting transnational research activities? 
• Which instruments are available (with which some partners may have experience) or can we think of to facilitate joint research?
• How can we help the funding agencies to agree on common research themes and to make use of available instruments?
• Can we learn from other programmes – how did these programmes succeed in effectively realizing joint research activities between member states and with the EU and global programmes?