GLP News

The Global Land Programme (GLP) is an interdisciplinary community of science and practice fostering the study of land systems and the co-design of solutions for global sustainability, and is currently a Global Research Project (GRP) of the Future Earth international research platform.

As a global community of scientists and research network on land systems, the GLP aims to lead synthesis and knowledge production in the field, organize and maintain platforms for interaction between community members through working groups, conferences, workshops, regional activities, and online resources and communication tools, and play a role in setting the science agendas for emerging land systems research to better integrate this understanding of the coupled human-environment system into policy debates at a variety of scales from local to global.

The GLP Scientific Steering Committee invites calls from internationally-active institutes to host the International Programme Office (IPO) of the Global Land Programme (GLP) (glp.earth) starting in 2022.

The Global Land Programme has been a leading voice of the land systems science (LSS) community for more than 20 years, emerging from the Land Use Cover Change (LUCC) and Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) projects of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) to become its own project in IGBP’s second phase and a joint project with the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) (2006-2015). GLP transitioned to Future Earth in 2016, and has since grown into an active member-based organization of over 1,600 scientists worldwide.

Today, GLP’s ambitious mission is to enable LSS for sustainable development of coupled human-environmental systems. This mission entails bridging scientific innovation (specialization) with societal relevance (transformation) and employs place-based research (contextualization) to feed synthesis-understandings of the patterns and processes of global change (generalization).

The ideal institute will have an international reputation for cutting-edge sustainability research with a focus on human-environment interactions. The successful bid stands to gain higher visibility, exposure at an international level, and recognition as a world leader in the LSS community. Hosting the International Programme Office will also assist the institute to align with international priorities and new developments. In return, the host institution must be prepared to commit resources to the international coordination of the LSS research community.

The GLP IPO serves as the main point of contact for the large, international network of LSS, and is responsible for coordinating of joint research (synthesis) activities including a network of new Working Groups, organizing GLP’s flagship Open Science Meeting (OSM) every 2-3 years, supporting the Scientific Steering Committee, maintaining a variety of communications platforms, including monthly newsletters, social media, the glp.earth website, and our new GLP contacts database on CiviCRM, representing and agenda setting in land use research and related activities at the science-policy interface, and serving as a liaison and participating in activities of the Future Earth research network.

The host institute should provide funding for an internationally recruited full-time Executive Officer and associated support staff (e.g., community and development manager, communications manager, administrative staff), infrastructural support (e.g., website and CRM hosting and other dissemination costs) and annual travel budget for at least the Executive Officer. Preferably, the budget should also include some funding for supporting working groups and regional activities such as targeted workshops.

Commitments to host the IPO are approved for a minimum length of 4 years with possibility of renewal. The GLP IPO is currently hosted by the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, which includes two 80% positions and administrative and communications support with an annual operating budget of USD ~300K per year.

We are also interested in transforming the way that GLP works to reduce the environmental impact of our work, which is primarily associated with travel. As such we welcome proposals that include a shift towards new ways of working and meeting virtually.

Institutions interested in hosting the GLP IPO are asked to submit a 3-page ‘expression of interest’ to the Scientific Steering Committee of the GLP by email: glp@cde.unibe.ch by September 15, 2020 or until a host is found. The expression of interest should contain information on the host institution, the mutual benefits for GLP and the host institute, a short description of the activities and roles of the IPO proposed as well as a financial offer in terms of staff and other finances. GLPs’ Scientific Steering Committee will then invite a shortlist of selected potential hosts to submit a full bid within three months. If you would like to discuss this opportunity please contact us at: glp@cde.unibe.ch

call_for_expressions_of_interest_eoi_ipo_v3.pdf