FAQ Launch Challenge

Become a member by registering on our web site (it’s free for 2015-201?) and simply participate as you see fit! If you want to support financially Climanosco, please visit our Donate page or contact us at donate@climanosco.org.

The name “Climanosco” is composed of the Latin words “Clima” and “Nosco”, the active form of the verb to know. So, it means something like “I am becoming knowledgeable on climate”. That’s precisely what we wish our readers and members to feel when they connect with Climanosco.

The climate has been on the international scene for several decades now. We all hear about it in the news, at school, etc. But what is it? How does it work? What do we know about it? Who knows something? How to access this knowledge? How to acquire knowledge on climate?
Climanosco is a non-profit association with members around the world who aims at tackling this challenge, one step at a time. Its aim is to make climate sciences understandable and openly accessible to everyone. It aims at building a bridge between citizens and climate scientists where citizens can raise their questions and get engaged side-by-side with climate scientists in the process of making science and of communicating science.

Climanosco is about making knowledge on climate understandable and openly accessible. It is not about advocating any specific idea or opinion, it is neither a political nor an activist movement. It reflects individuals in their diversity of opinions and uniqueness of perspectives. It also reflects the progress of scientific research in its complexity and diversity. It does not focus on climate change or global warming. It covers the broad area of climate sciences. It does not have commercial goals. It is a registered non-profit association (under Swiss laws). Climanosco is not fitted to any specific donor’s agenda. It is strictly independent at the governance and financial levels. It is governed by its members and donations are capped to CHF2000 per donor per year (as for 2015).

You can simply register (it’s free of fees for 2015-2016) and opt in for notifications. You will then receive emails notifying you on the various activities of the members and you can decide where and how you would like to participate. Climanosco is about the participation of its members as individuals in their diversity and uniqueness. As a member, you will also be invited to participate to our annual on-line General Assembly. Note that Climanosco does not accept institutional members.

As stated in its Statutes, independence is one of the three basic principles which Climanosco must satisfy in achieving its goals. This independence is built in at every level of governance and financially. Climanosco is a non-profit association exclusively governed by its members. It does not accept institutional members. Donations are capped to avoid any dependence with respect to any specific donor.

Over the past year, we have developed the basic ideas of Climanosco, have built up an initial community as well as an internet platform. Climanosco is now a registered non-profit association with a Board of Directors and an Editorial Board. We have tested our system with an initial manuscript and are now ready to accept our first submissions. In other words, we are launching our activities on Climanosco. This Challenge is our Launch Challenge.

This Challenge is our Launch Challenge. We are starting our activities and at this occasion, we are inviting climate scientists to rewrite, in non-scientific language, one of their scientific papers that appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.

We currently have 53 members from all around the world, including Canada, USA, Nicaragua, Mexico, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Algeria, Australia, and India (status at the end of August 2015).

The submission of manuscripts in Climanosco is generally open to all climate scientists who have published at least one article in a recognized peer-reviewed journal in the area of climate sciences. However, for this challenge specifically, we had to limit participation by issuing invitations. We are still a small community and as such, there is a limit to the number of manuscripts we can streamline through our peer-review process while assuring its quality. For this reason, we had to limit the participation to this challenge to around 25 main authors. And because we do not want to be obliged to say “no” to great people, we preferred to run this challenge by invitation. While the submission of manuscripts not participating to the challenge remains open at all times, including during this challenge, we ask their authors to be patient as we are streamlining the manuscripts participating to the challenge.

Beyond the exciting prizes that Climanosco will offer for the best manuscripts, participating to this Challenge also means taking part in an initiative which aims at opening for the general public a new access to state-of-the-art research in the area of climate using the highest scientific standards. Climanosco is independent at the financial and governance levels. To ensure long-term balance, the Board of Directors is equally composed of climate scientists and non climate scientists and donations are capped. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed through an innovative process where climate scientists review the scientific content and non-scientists review the accessibility. With this structure, Climanosco’s aim is to offer a direct, reliable and unbiased channel for climate scientists to communicate their research for the general public and to increase their impact and visibility.

Yes, absolutely, we will be delighted to have you as a new member. We need people like you to participate. You have a very important role to play especially in making sure that Climanosco’s published articles are accessible to a large public.

First of all because it’s fun! You will be able to participate to our activities and even engage as a candidate for the Board of Directors at the next General Assembly. You will have access to the manuscripts before they are published. You will be able to discuss on manuscripts alongside with other people and climate scientists, and help authors learn to write for non-scientists. You will be able to invite climate scientists to write an article on a topic of your interest. You will be able to co-author articles written in reply. And you will be able to network with interesting people from all around the world.

The purpose of Climanosco is to offer open access articles written in non-scientific language reflecting the state-of-the-art research in climate sciences. It is also a platform where citizens can engage side-by-side with climate scientists. Citizens can submit invitations for scientists to write an article on a topic of their interests and can participate to the elaboration of such articles. Citizens can translate articles from English to their language and thereby contribute to making knowledge accessible for everyone. Through their involvement in our innovative Peer-Review process, citizens play a central role by making sure that Climanosco’s articles are accessible to non-scientists. The Board of Directors is equally composed of climate scientists and non climate scientists. Citizens who want to engage further can get elected and take a leadership role as member of the Board of Directors.

There is an immense gap between what we actually know on the climate from a scientific perspective and what people have access to. By becoming a member, you can publish your research for the general public in the easiest and most direct manner. You also have access to a community which will help you speed up your learning curve in writing for non-scientists. By becoming a member of Climanosco, you also contribute alongside with many colleagues around the world, to develop a long-term and trustworthy structure which will help improve the general understanding on climate in the public. And you will be able to network with interesting people from all around the world.

Climanosco aims at offering articles for a general public reflecting the highest standards in science. Climanosco is independent at the financial and governance levels.
With its structure, Climanosco’s aim is to offer a direct, reliable and unbiased channel for climate scientists to communicate their research for the general public and to increase their impact.
Climate scientists who want to take a leadership role along side colleagues from around the world can engage and get elected to the Board of Directors.

The participants will be in contact by email with the administrator and then the editor in charge of their manuscript throughout the peer-review process. At the end of the peer-review, the editor will issue a recommendation as to whether the manuscript shall be nominated as finalist for the Challenge or not. If recommended as a finalist, the manuscript will be ranked by way of vote by the Jury. The winners are then contacted personally using the email address they entered on their registration page. The entire process is estimated to take a maximum of 4 months. The winners (and all participants) will be notified by the end of February 2016.

This challenge is organized at the occasion of the launch of Climanosco in the fall 2015. This is a unique event. However, it is in our plans to organize an award of the most popular article of the year.

This initiative emerged through discussions with many colleagues, scientists and friends. The ideas took a coherent shape in 2013 and were presented at an American scientific conference in Colorado and the following year at a European conference in Vienna. We started in 2014 by building an initial, yet worldwide community, an Internet platform and then a non-profit organisation.

Requests for recommendations of early career scientists have been sent to 25 leading universities in America, Europe, and Asia. After reception of these recommendations, personal invitations were sent to 29 selected candidates. Candidates were asked to notify Climanosco as soon as possible but no later than 15 September if they accept to take part to the challenge.