IGCC Call For Proposals on Climate Change and Security Closes Oct. 31

The University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) has launched a new Request For Proposals on the Security Implications of Climate Change (application deadline: Oct. 31, 2022). University of California ladder rank faculty are eligible to apply. Proposals will be accepted on a range of sub-themes including migration and border disputes; trade and global value chains; energy, food supplies, and infrastructure; political violence, radicalization, and fragility; implications for militaries and the defense community; and international governance.

“IGCC has a longstanding commitment to supporting research on challenges that have the potential to lead to large-scale conflict and instability, especially challenges that demand global cooperation to solve. The security implications of climate change fit squarely within our mission,” says IGCC associate director Lindsay Morgan. “We are really excited to be able to support scholars across UC campuses working in this space, and hope ultimately to help create a community and position the UC system as a leader in this critical but still nascent space.”

IGCC provides ongoing support to research on climate change. Research director Josh Graff Zivin manages IGCC’s work on international environmental and health studies, including climate, economics, and development; and affiliate Michael Davidson leads research on renewable energy pathways to support carbon neutrality in China. IGCC also supports climate-relevant work every year through our doctoral dissertation fellowship and the postdoctoral fellowship in technology and security.

Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to U.S. and global security. In a sobering assessment report released on June 28, 2022, NATO recognized climate change as an “overarching challenge of our time” that will “measurably” increase the risks to security and “worsen as the world warms further.” Global climate change will challenge international governance systems, force a reimagining of the roles of militaries and defense communities, spark migration and border disputes, disrupt global trade, prompt conflict within and between countries over scarce resources, and threaten social cohesion and economic stability.

There is a wealth of climate science detailing the process and impacts of a warming world—sea level rise, heat waves, wildfires, droughts, more intense storms, ocean acidification—and enormous scientific confidence in the fundamentals of climate change: that climate change is real, that it is accelerating, that it is caused by human activities, that it will worsen before we can stop it, and that we will be better off if we take aggressive action now. There is also a substantial body of social science research that sheds light on how particular impacts are likely to affect, or be affected by, particular communities in particular places.

What there is much less of—and what is vitally needed—is macro, transnational social science research on the security implications of climate change writ large that can inform international and national strategies and processes as the world prepares for a fundamentally changed landscape.

To fill this gap, IGCC will support social science research collaboration across the UC system, and the building of networks—among faculty, students, and the policy community, both in California and beyond. The first phase of this initiative will focus on a new research competition, in which IGCC will allocate up to $150,000 to support UC faculty research.

For information on requirements and how to apply, please see the Climate Change and Security Research Grant hub.