In the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Cycle (AR6), mountain regions gained attention, especially in ‘High Mountains’ and ‘Cross-Chapter Paper on Mountains.’ The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) played a pivotal role, coordinating efforts, ensuring diverse participation, and contributing to high-quality assessments, fostering dialogue on climate change challenges in mountainous regions.
The MRI, in collaboration with the University of Bern’s Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), developed a sustainable mountain development assessment approach within the Sustainable Mountain Development for Global Change (SMD4GC) program (2013-2018), using the Sustainable Development Goals framework. This method helped elucidate the distinctive challenges faced by mountain communities, providing valuable insights for global, national, and subnational policy and decision-making.
In 2014, the Mountain Research Initiative, representing Switzerland in the CH-AT Swiss Austrian Alliance for Mountain Research, spearheaded a lobbying initiative to enhance mountain research within the European Union. The immediate objective was to incorporate more mountain research topics into the 2018-20 calls of Horizon 2020, the EU’s ongoing research funding program, with the overarching goal of raising awareness among decision-makers about the significance of mountains for the entire European region.
Established in 2003, Global Change and Mountain Regions (GLOCHAMORE) was a worldwide network dedicated to investigating global change processes in mountainous areas. Financed by the European Commission and supported by UNESCO-MAB in partnership with the Mountain Research Initiative and the University of Vienna (Austria), the GLOCHAMORE Project focused on identifying the primary factors causing global and climate change within mountain biosphere reserves.
