The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project -History, Uses, and Structural Effects on Climate Research

International audienceThe results of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) are currently being analysed and will form the basis of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Since its creation in the mid-1990s, CMIP has had an increasing influence on climate research. While the principle behind it has always remained the same-comparing different climate models under similar conditions-its design and motivations have evolved significantly over the phases of the project. This evolution is closely linked to the one of the IPCC, since, historically as well as today, the results of CMIP have played a major role in the panel reports. This role increased the visibility of CMIP-over time, more and more people started to be interested in CMIP and to analyze its results. Despite this success, the way CMIP is used today raises methodological issues. In fact, CMIP has promoted a particular way of doing climate research, centred on a single tool, Global Coupled Models (GCMs), and creating a gap between model developers and model users. Due to the debates regarding the interpretation of multi-model ensembles and the validation of GCMs, whether the emphasis on this particular way of studying climate is serving the progress of climate science is questionable

The ethos and ethics of translational research

Calls for the translation of research from bench to bedside are increasingly demanding. What is translation, and why does it matter? We sketch the recent history of outcome-oriented translational research in the United States, with a particular focus on the Roadmap Initiative of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Our main example of contemporary translational research is stem cell research, which has superseded genomics as the translational object of choice. We explore the nature of and obstacles to translational research and assess the ethical and biomedical challenges of embracing a translational ethos