Following the invitation of Professor Partha Dasgupta, 33 scientists from across the globe, including IHDP Scientific Committee members and representatives of IHDP projects and partners, gathered for the 19th IHDP Scientific Committee Meeting. The meeting was held in London from 23-25 March 2012, preceding the international conference ‘Planet under Pressure: Knowledge towards Solutions’ that was co-organized by IHDP. The aim of the annual meeting of IHDP’s governing body is to provide advice regarding the further strategy for the programme’s research, and to develop the activity portfolio.

This year the meeting mainly focused on the new initiative ‘Future Earth’ that has been proposed by the Alliance made of the International council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Belmont Forum of funding agencies, UNEP, UNESCO and UNU. Members of the Transition Team, responsible for designing the new initiative, attended the IHDP SC meeting and informed the participants on the current and planned developments of the initiative. Furthermore, the Scientific Committee members and project representatives discussed the opportunities and desired positioning of IHDP and its projects within the new initiative. More detailed information on the Alliance as well as the Future Earth initiative is available on the following website: http://www.icsu.org/future-earth/home.

In order to enhance the collaboration among the Global Change Programmes, the meeting saw its premier in conducting a joint day with the Scientific Committee of DIVERSITAS. The aim was to facilitate an exchange of ideas and key questions on themes concerning collaborative projects and research. This joint day was very well received by the participants of IHDP as well as DIVERSITAS and provided the opportunity of direct interaction on programme level.

The meeting was followed by the Planet under Pressure conference, which was attended by most of the IHDP’s meeting participants. As co-organizer IHDP played an important role in the conference and covered a number of well-attended sessions during the event. More information about the Conference can be found on the following website: http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net.