The goal of the program is to reveal key insights into the long-term, complex interactions of human and
natural systems and their implications in a changing climate and changing world, delivering science-based models and
tools that inform national and regional decision-making, and integrated perspectives, on mitigation, adaptation, and
long-term energy sustainability and vulnerability.
Program Description
The Integrated Assessment Research Program (IARP) supports research on models and tools for integrated analysis of
both the drivers and consequences of climate change. Past work has focused on drivers, specifically sources of
greenhouse gas emissions within a common, most often economic and risk-based, modeling framework. Until recently,
only modest attention and resources were devoted to modeling the interactive effects of consequences, that is,
impacts and adaptation, but this is now a major focus for the program. Additionally, future Integrated Assessment
Models (IAM) will need to go beyond a national focus to better provide regional insights and perspectives. While
IAMs have already proven their worth as critical decision tools, next generation models will be developed to provide
broad-based vulnerability analyses spanning multiple, interactive stressors; analysis of the role of science and
technology in both mitigation and adaptation; assessment of the combined economic effects of different response
strategies and policies; and improved interoperability across various spatial and temporal scales and levels of
modeling detail and complexity. These models will also be challenged more extensively to explore key intersecting
systems and their interdependencies, such as found at the energy, water, and land nexus and in connected
infrastructure dynamics .
Program Funding Opportunity Announcements
Announcements are posted on the DOE Office of Science Grants and
Contracts Web Site and at grants.gov
Information about preparing and submitting applications, as well as the DOE Office of Science merit
review process, is available at theDOE Office of Science Grants and
Contracts Web Site. For current announcements visit BER Funding Opportunities.
The most recently closed Announcement (DE-FOA-0000219)
requested applications for a single, coordinated research effort that would: 1) advance progress on a select set of
major scientific challenges in the field of Integrated Assessment that are widely recognized and confronting the
major Integrated Assessment modeling teams, 2) advance methods and capabilities for inter-model testing and
diagnostics, and 3) enhance capabilities for multi-model, "ensemble-like" analyses for improved insights in science
studies and science-based analyses.
Why the Program's Research is Important
Climate change is real, its effects are more immediate and profound than previously anticipated, and old questions
(are humans the cause?) are yielding to new: What are the impacts? Who and what will be most vulnerable? What can we
do about it, and how can we prepare? Against this backdrop, and with an eye toward:
- regional and local scale insights
- quantitative predictions at the decadal, annual and even shorter time scales
- policy-making, planning and decision support tools
- impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability studies, and
- highly integrated analyses spanning energy, environment, and economic security,
New or vastly improved Integrated Assessment Models will inform some of the most significant U.S. energy and other
infrastructure decisions and investments of this century. In short, these models shape our fundamental understanding
of climate change: the drivers, its pace, its consequences, the implications and role for energy systems of the
future, changes in availability of natural resources, food, and water, and shifts in global economies,
vulnerabilities and overall national security.
More Information about the Program and its Accomplishments