THE University of Edinburgh has announced bumper funding of £1m to help forecast climate tipping points.
The move comes despite several concerning emails being sent to all staff just a week ago describing the university’s perilous financial state.
Staff were offered an extended period to hand in voluntary redundancy in the emails which described a multi-million-pound hole in the university’s finances.
The emails stated “nothing is off the table” with suggestions of cutting whole schools and outsourcing to save cash.
Despite this, the university yesterday announced the £1m funding which was awarded to a researcher at the university.
The money will assist in the forecasting of climate tipping points with research led by Professor Víctor Elvira of the school of mathematics.
The team will investigate and forecast tipping points that, once reached, could lead to cascading and irreversible changes to Earth’s climate.
Funding for the project is part of a five-year £81m programme by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
Funding will be awarded to 27 international research projects to work collaboratively on creating an early warning system for tipping points.
ARIA is a new UK Government agency that backs high-risk, high-reward research projects with funding support.
Professor Víctor Elvira said: “Understanding climate tipping points is crucial for anticipating irreversible changes.
“This project advances computational methods for detecting and predicting these tipping points, with a strong emphasis on scientific understanding.
“We also focus on quantifying our uncertainties about the future — not just predicting what can be predicted but also determining what cannot and why.”
