Funding global public goods: the dark side of multilateralism

The funding of global public goods, such as climate mitigation, presents a complex strategic problem. Potential recipients demand side payments for implementing projects that furnish global public goods, and donors can cooperate to provide the funding. We offer a game-theoretic analysis of this problem. In our model, a recipient demands project funding. Donors can form a multilateral program to jointly fund the project. If no program is formed, bilateral funding remains a possibility. We find that donors rely on multilateralism if their preferences are relatively symmetric and domestic political constraints on funding are lax. In this case, the recipient secures large rents from project implementation. Thus, even donors with strong interests in global public good provision have incentives to oppose institutional arrangements that promote multilateral funding. These incentives have played an important role in multilateral negotiations on climate finance, especially in Cancun (2010) and Durban (2011)

Using geophysical surveys to test tracer-based storage estimates in headwater catchments

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Stian Bradford, Chris Gabrielli, and Julie Timms for practical and logistical assistance. The provision of transport by Iain Malcolm and Ross Glover of Marine Scotland Science was greatly appreciated. We also thank the European Research Council ERC (project GA 335910 VEWA) for funding through the VeWa project and the Leverhulme Trust for funding through PLATO (RPG-2014-016).Peer reviewedPostprin

Government R&D funding: new approaches in the allocation policies for public and private beneficiaries

The objective of this paper is to perform a first experiment of quantitative assessment on changes in allocation mechanisms and in their underlying delegation models, using the quantitative information and the descriptions of national funding systems produced in the PRIME project funding activity. Delegation has been explored through changes in instrument portfolios and in evaluation modes, as proofs of an evolution in research governance. Some common trends can be identified: the reinforcing of both priority setting and peer review processes. The general result of our analysis is that some change in delegation modes took place, but there is not a simple transition from one delegation regime to another, while a "contract" delegation model (the NPM reform) is not detectable through project funding analysis.R/D funding, allocation policy, project funding, research governance, evaluation modes, delegation models

GAELS Project Final Report: Information environment for engineering

The GAELS project was a collaboration commenced in 1999 between Glasgow University Library and Strathclyde University Library with two main aims:· to develop collaborative information services in support of engineering research at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde· to develop a CAL (computer-aided learning package) package in advanced information skills for engineering research students and staff The project was funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) from their Strategic Change Initiative funding stream, and funding was awarded initially for one year, with an extension of the grant for a further year. The project ended in June 2001.The funding from SHEFC paid for two research assistants, one based at Glasgow University Library working on collaborative information services and one based at Strathclyde University Library developing courseware. Latterly, after these two research assistants left to take up other posts, there has been a single researcher based at Glasgow University Library.The project was funded to investigate the feasibility of new services to the Engineering Faculties at both Universities, with a view to making recommendations for service provision that can be developed for other subject areas

Collaborative Funding to Facilitate Airport Ground Access, Research Report 11-27

This report presents the findings and conclusions from a research study that has examined the challenges of funding airport ground access projects and the role of collaborative funding strategies between the different agencies that typically become involved in such projects. The report reviews the recent literature on funding airport ground access projects, as well as funding transportation projects more generally. This is followed by a detailed review of current federal transportation funding programs relevant to airport ground access projects, as well as a discussion of state and local funding programs and potential opportunities for private-sector funding. A major component of the research described in the report consists of detailed case studies of seven selected airport ground access projects, including a major intermodal center, two automated people-mover projects, two airport access highway projects, and two airport rail links. These case studies examine the history of each project, the costs involved, and the funding programs and mechanisms used to finance the projects. Based on the literature review, the review of current funding programs, and the case study findings, the report identifies potential funding strategies for intermodal airport ground access projects, requirements for effective implementation of these strategies, and a recommended approach to facilitate successful project development and implementation. The report also presents recommended changes to transportation funding program rules and regulations that could facilitate and simplify development of intermodal solutions to future airport ground access needs

The future of public sector funding of regeneration project in England

This report describes the policy framework through which urban regeneration is promoted and highlights the difficulties encountered in co-ordinating the current public funding initiatives to secure effective urban regeneration and maximise value for money

CurriculumNet: Creating Freely Available Curriculum Materials to Meet Uganda's Growing Student Population

The National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC), an office under the Ugandan government's Ministry of Education and Sports has using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to assist in addressing the curriculum needs of the growing student population in both rural and urban schools in Uganda. With funding from the Canadian International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), the NCDC developed CurriculumNet, the goal of which has been to develop, test, and integrate ICT-based instructional materials and teaching into existing Ugandan curriculum. This report presents key practices and learnings of the CurriculumNet project in terms of its collaborative curriculum development process, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced by the project overall. Through analysis of the projects internal documentation, as well as interviews with the CurriculumNet project leader, this report documents how the project developed and disseminated content to meet curriculum needs while also addressing funding and infrastructure related challenges

Data Center Interconnects at 400G and Beyond

Current trends in Data Center Interconnectivity are considered in the light of increasing traffic and under the constraint of limited cost and power consumption.Comment: This project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 762055 (BlueSpace project) and from the German ministry of education and research (BMBF) under contract 16KIS0477K (SENDATE Secure-DCI project

Visualisation of spatial patterns of connectivity and runoff ages derived from a tracer-aided model

We thank the European Research Council ERC (project GA 335910 VEWA) for funding the VeWa project.Peer reviewedPostprin