The National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) loss will be the University of Colorado’s gain when it comes to research on capacity building. The university today announced it had received a $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to establish a worldwide consortium linking decisionmakers with institutes, governments, and individuals to share climate-, water-, and weather-related knowledge.

Former head of NCAR’s now-defunct Center for Capacity Building (CCB) Michael “Mickey” Glantz was tapped to direct the consortium. Glantz was left out in the cold in August after budget issues forced NCAR to close the CCB—a center known for bridging the gap between climate science, policy, and society, and for emphasizing developing countries’ needs in climate change response and adaptation.

"A central feature of the consortium is to foster the notion of climate affairs, which encompasses climate science, climate impacts, politics, policy and law, economics and ethics, and equity," Glantz stated in a CU press release. "I'm really excited to be able to continue this work."

Meanwhile, the stinted budget that killed the CCB is once again rearing its head at NCAR as scientists struggle to deliver climate data while coping with a shortage of experienced staff, according to a recent article in Science magazine.

The article chronicles the edgy atmosphere at NCAR since it’s budget woes began about five years ago thanks to expensive restructuring and Congress reneging on a plan that would have doubled its funding. The latest crunch could cause NCAR to miss an October 1 deadline for completing a critical piece of their Community Climate System Model (CCSM), according to the magazine. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change uses CCSM data in its reports.

Among the difficulties threatening the model’s completion is a steady stream of weathered scientists leaving for greener pastures—scientists who have been replaced with less-experience colleagues or not at all, according to the article. The young modelers have talent, but “lack valuable experience taming new parts of an unpredictable code,” CCSM Advisory Board Member Richard Rood told Science.

Despite the attrition and budget issues, NCAR officials are hopeful proposed additions to the model will provide better information in the long run and say that the CCSM program hasn’t felt the full blow of the shortages yet.

For full text of the Science article, including a podcast interview with author Eli Kintisch, visit Science online.