Woodwell Climate Research Center

Policy Relevant Research: Scientific excellence is the foundation for all of Woodwell Climate Research Center's activities, and distinguishes WCRC from other NGOs in the environmental sector. Through a holistic, multidisciplinary, applied, and team-focused approach, we seek to create breakthrough understanding of climate change impacts and solutions, for the purpose of informing sound environmental policies from the local to global scale. WCRC's research is focused on the land-climate connection - how changes in land use effect the climate system; how the changing climate is altering systems on land such as forests, ecosystems and agriculture; and what land-management strategies can harness the power of nature to slow climate change. Most of this research is conducted in the arctic and the tropics-critical regions where natural systems contain disproportionate shares of the planet's biodiversity and stored carbon, but where deforestation, agriculture, fire, and climatic warming place these assets at great risk.

Policy Engagement, Education and Communication: Woodwell Climate Research Center has a long and rich history of impacting climate policy processes at multiple levels, and sharing our scientific understanding of climate change with the world through cutting-edge communication and education programs. WCRC builds partnerships with local and national governments, non-governmental and private-sector organizations to implement and measure progress towards national commitments to the Paris agreement. To leave an educational legacy, WCRC offers hands-on experiential programs to train a new generation of climate science leaders. WCRC fosters immersive educational programs that encourage students to link field research with big-picture solutions in the challenging and fast-changing environments where we work.

Center Funded Science: This category of expenditures represents Woodwell Climate Research Center's commitment to stimulating innovation, investing in future science leaders and investing in our scientific staff by funding projects of our own choosing. Center funded science aims to supplement/extend existing projects, or seed-fund projects that have the potential to have outsized impact in science and policy or which have good potential for return on investment by enabling external funding.