Bridging the Gap with the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC)

The difficulty of translating scientific results into useful information defines the abyss that is addressed by a new PCIC consortium of academics-government-industry at the University of Victoria. The scope of the consortium is research applications of climate variability and change, including extreme weather events, for climate impacts and adaptation in Pacific North America. During the past 3 years traditional tools of collaboration have been utilized--both with the science community and with stakeholders. Some success in networking with Provinces, the States, and with national institutions has been achieved. Limitations of governance/management, resources, and cooperation have been identified. Input and statements of need from the climate stakeholders in government and industry has been achieved, but only in specific areas - water/power generation, forestry, communities. Three examples will be given of successful engagement of stakeholders. These examples demonstrate how difficult it is to summarize effectiveness, relevance, and capacity. This experience, and early decisions on scope, focus and priorities have taken us this far, but some exceptional challenges have arisen due to the stakeholder demand for new (geophysical) design conditions for the 21st century.