Montreal is bidding to become the headquarters for a secretariat for Future Earth, a 10-year platform for international research aimed at generating climate change-related knowledge and identifying opportunities for global sustainability. The city's bid is being driven by Montréal International, a non-profit public-private partnership whose mission is to boost economic development and raise the city's international stature.

Dr Rémi Quirion, Quebec's chief scientist and board chair of the Fonds de recherche du Québec, is a major supporter of the bid. Though led by the US, the secretariat would be headquartered in Montreal with distributed functions in various cities including Paris, Stockholm and Tokyo. The only other contender is the UK, which is submitting a bid of its own. The deadline for submissions is March 31st.

"To be granted the secretariat would be particularly significant from the perspectives of international research development, strategic positioning and recognition for Québec and its researchers." — Dr Rémi Quirion's Quebec chief scientist

"Future Earth is in a year of transition and we have a 50-50 chance which is pretty good. Having the secretariat here would give visibility to our scientists in the areas of sustainable development and climate change," says Quirion, who was in Paris recently to meet with members of the bidding team.

"We already use a distributed structure for sustainable development and climate change at the university level in Quebec so we can use this structure at the global level ... It will have a clustering effect."

The Future Earth initiative is the flagship program for the Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability and is sponsored by the International Council for Science (ISC), a Paris-based nongovernmental organization representing more than 120 national scientific bodies and 30 international scientific unions. It intends to bring together researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and the humanities.

Future Earth integrates four existing research programs under the umbrella of the ISC. Slated to launch in mid-2014, the budget for the secretariat will be about US$13 million, twice the amount of the four existing programs. Participants are expected to secure their own funding from organizations like Belmont Forum, a US-based association of international research funders and science councils. Future Earth was launched by UNESCO at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

Quirion says Montréal International is taking a strong interest in the Future Earth bid and is backing it aggressively. The organization, which has municipal, provincial and federal backing, has been successful in attracting the headquarters of other international organizations to the city including the Global Campaign for Climate Action, Commission for Environmental Cooperation, World Configuration of Productivity Science, International Forum of Public Universities, Public Population Project in Genomics and society and Convention on Biological Diversity.

R$