Exploring research priorities for the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report

Following the IPCC approval of the outlines for its three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment cycle, the Grantham Institute hosted a day-long event bringing together experts from across the UK climate research community to discuss the Working Group outlines and explore research priorities to strengthen and support the IPCC assessment.  

This report aims to signpost some key areas that would benefit from further research to deliver robust IPCC assessment findings. It provides a short summary of the presentations of the Working Group outlines, as well as research priorities highlighted during the panel discussions. In addition, it also shares some overarching reflections on how new research could effectively input into the IPCC process. Slides of the presentations of the three WG outlines are included in the Annex.  

The event was held under the Chatham House rule. This document distils key points raised during the panel discussions but does not necessarily represent the views of all individual speakers or the Grantham Institute.  

For follow up enquiries about the event or this synthesis document, contact: Caterina Brandmayr, Director of Policy and Translation, Grantham Institute at c.brandmayr@imperial.ac.uk.  

Key messages: 

• For each WG, there are a range of research priorities and evidence gaps that can be addressed in the coming years to strengthen and support the IPCC assessment. 

• It is important to deliver research in time to be considered as part of this IPCC assessment cycle. Researchers need to check the dates the IPCC sets for publication acceptance for each report. 

• Researchers should think about how to focus and adapt existing research projects to meet the needs and time constraints of the Working Groups.  

• Working Groups require greater collaboration. This needs to start within the research community itself, with publications developing a much more integrated, multi- and interdisciplinary evidence base.  

• Research communities should explore questions that fall outside of their traditional research domains to enable IPCC authors to use different lines of evidence.  

• Credible and robust knowledge synthesis, as well as developing assessment methodologies, provides a very valuable foundation for IPCC authors.