After waiting months for U.S federal funding to materialise, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Centre had to officially close its doors last week.
PI-CASC opened in 2012 as a partnership between the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, and the University of Guam with federal support from the U.S Geological Survey, which is within the Department of the Interior(DOI).
The Pacific climate hub was one of nine regional centres across the country.
In February, PI-CASC applied for a US$10 million federal award in order to fund the next five years of its operations.
The centre had successfully re-upped its funding before, but this time, the Department of the Interior did not move the process forward. Funding for the centre lapsed on 01 October.
Darren Lerner, the executive director of PI-CASC, said the DOI has not provided an explanation as to why the process has been halted or if it may resume.
While Lerner said he’s hopeful that DOI may still approve PI-CASC’s funding, bringing the centre back to its previous capacity will be difficult.
“Even if they started that process tomorrow, it will take months to then result in funding being available to us here on our campuses,” he said.
Leadership at PI-CASC had anticipated that the centre might close, as the funding award was expected by June.
Lerner said that six PI-CASC employees have taken other opportunities or are seeking new positions, and 14 graduate students have lost funding for research projects.
Climate hubs in the Northeast and South Central regions also saw their funding lapse last Wednesday.
