Potential for Scientific and Technological Research on Climate Change in Mexico

The National Institute of Ecology (INE) requested a study to the Secretaría de Investigación y Desarrollo of the Coordinación de la Investigación Científica at the UNAM (Secretariat of Research and Development of the Coordination of Scientific Research-UNAM) with the following objectives:

• To develop an inventory and diagnosis on research being performed by national institutions on the subject of Climate Change.

• The project will serve as a basis for establishing cooperation programs between government and research centers.

The study was jointly performed by the Secretariat of Research and Development (SID), the Instituto de Ingeniería (Institute of Engineering) (II), and the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera (Center for Atmosphere Sciences), all of the UNAM.

A national census of institutions and experts working on climate change in Mexico was carried out, and a database including 332 contacts, assigned to 173 agencies of 106 institutions, from which 84 are national institutions, was created. For each contact the following 22 data were collected:

Institutional Data

1. Institution
2. Institution Acronym
3. Formal
4. Entity or Country
5. Website or E-mail
6. National vs. Foreign
7. Type of Institution

Institutional Activities

8. Research and Studies
9. Teaching and Training
10. Dissemination
11. Funding
12. Institutional Agencies

Contact Data

13. Group
14. Contact
15. Electronic Address
16. Contact Location
17. Lines of Interest

Contact Capacities

18. Research or Interest Sub-line
19. Project Items
20. Item 1
21. Item 2
22. Item 3

Information was obtained from several sources: the websites of nearly all the national institutions were consulted simultaneously; personal contacts of project leaders and at the same time –due to the high scientific content of the subject- specialized search methods were used.

With collected data a number of tables were designed and organized in three categories aiming at facilitating contact finding. Thus information presentation is as follows:

By Contact Name.

By Institutional Name.

By Research Lines or Sub-lines.