Center for Robust Decision Making on Energy and Climate Policy

The opportunity:

Following on a meeting between the then-president of the MacArthur Foundation and University of Chicago President Zimmer, Arete assisted Ian Foster, Director of the Computation Institute, in developing a “big idea” for MacArthur at the intersection of computation, energy, and climate change.  Arete worked with Foster to assemble a faculty team which proposed the creation of a next generation model to study the socio-economic implications of climate change and climate policies and to guide high-level decision making. After successfully securing preliminary funding, Arete worked with the Computation Institute to establish the administrative and institutional infrastructure necessary for a major scale up and the award of a large National Science Foundation grant to launch the Center on Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy.

What we did for them:

·      Convened interdisciplinary partnerships across the University

·      Developed integrated and holistic funding strategy

·      Helped funder achieve its funding vision

·      Prepared for site visits

·      Scaled up and expanded program scope

·      Developed programs and initiatives

Principal Investigator:  Ian Foster

Website: www.rdcep.org