IGCP projects

The programme operates by providing seed funding grants donated by UNESCO, IUGS, and extra-budgetary sources. IGCP projects primarily deal with geosciences on global issues related to five themes: Earth resources, Global change, Geohazards, Hydrogeology, and Geodynamics.

Each project has an average lifespan of five years and its progress is assessed annually through a rigorous peer-review process conducted by the IGCP Council following the evaluation reports from members of the Scientific Board during the first half of February.

IGCP projects bring together thousands of Earth scientists from around the world and allows them to benefit from the cooperative spirit generated under the umbrella of UNESCO, with the support of IUGS, the Jeju Province Development Corporation (JPDC) from the Republic of Korea and the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO.

If you wish to participate in an active IGCP project, please contact the relevant project leaders.

• Call for new IGCP projects

sustaining our society

Knowledge on natural resources - including minerals, hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, and water - and their management is at the frontline of the struggle for more sustainable and equitable development. The environmentally responsible exploitation of these resources is a challenge for geoscience research. The progress of technological development is equally bound to this premise.

• IGCP 636 - Geothermal resources for energy transition
• IGCP 637- Heritage Stones: a step towards to widen up the recognition of stones used in the building of heritage in emerging countries
• IGCP 675 - Sandstone-Type Uranium Deposits
• IGCP 696 - Impacts from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon
• IGCP 722 - Development Minerals workshop in the Pacific
• IGCP 765 - Capacity building networks and improved methodologies for increased interoperability mapping and monitoring carbon stocks
• IGCP 767 - Environmental dynamics of western Rwanda (E-DOOR)
• IGCP 769 - Centre for master's training in energy transition

evidence from the geological record

Changes in the Earth's climate and of life on Earth are preserved in the geologic record. Ice and dust records, terrestrial and ocean sediments, and sequences of fossil plant and animal assemblages all tell the story of our Planet which holds important lessons about present-day environmental challenges and the ways to mitigate and manage environmental damage.

• IGCP 673 - The End of A Supereon - Winners and Losers at the Precambrian-Phanerozoic Transition 
• IGCP 679 - Cretaceous Earth Dynamics and Climate in Asia 
• IGCP 700 - Carbonate Build-Ups In South East Asia
• IGCP 704 - Carbon in Peat on Earth through Time: tropical peatland processes and ecosystem services
• IGCP 732 - LANGUAGE of the Anthropocene
• IGCP 735 - Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life (Rocks n' ROL)
• IGCP 739 - The Mesozoic Paleogene Hypertermal Events 

mitigating risks

Geohazards include earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, tsunamis, floods, meteorite impacts and the health hazards of geologic materials, and can range from local events such as a rock slide or coastal erosion to events that threaten humankind such as a supervolcano or meteorite impact. Earth scientists undertake research to better understand these hazards and contribute to risk management policies related to social and technical issues associated with geohazards as well as disaster mitigation.

• IGCP 669 - Identification of seismogenic faults in populated areas of Latin America and its incorporation into seismic hazard assessment
• IGCP 672 - Himalayan glaciers: assessing risks to local communities from debris cover and lake changes using new satellite data
• IGCP 692 - Geoheritage for Geohazard Resilience 
• IGCP 705 - Building Global Capacity for the Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change
• IGCP 724 - Fluid geochemistry and earthquake forecasting
• IGCP 725 - Forecasting coastal change
• IGCP 740 - West Makran Paleo-tsunami Investigation (2020-2021)

geoscience of the water cycle

Life on Earth depends on water, and its sustainable use is crucial for continued human activities. Earth’s water cycle involves studying, understanding, and managing groundwater systems, hydrogeology, as well as sources, contamination and vulnerability of water systems.

• IGCP 707 - Origin, Distribution, and Biogeochemistry of Arsenic in the Altiplano-Puna plateau of South America
• IGCP 715 - A new karst modelling approach along different tectonic contacts
• IGCP 730 - Hydrogeological Significance of Mediterranean Geoparks

control our environment

Our habitable environment at the Earth's surface is linked and controlled by processes occurring deep within the Earth. Earth scientists use, inter alia, geophysical techniques to study deep Earth processes ranging from changes in the Earth's magnetic field to plate tectonics to understand better the Earth as a dynamic planet. Those processes are also relevant to natural resource exploration, distribution and management of groundwater resources and the study and mitigation of natural hazards such as earthquakes.

• IGCP 683 - Pre-Atlantic geological connections among northwest Africa, Iberia and eastern North America: Implications for continental configurations and economic resources
• IGCP 710 - Western Tethys meets Eastern Tethys

Special theme - 2020

UNESCO’s mandate acknowledges the research on geological heritage as an important instrument for the holistic approach to sustainable development of UNESCO Member States. The call for proposals under the Geoheritage for Sustainable Development Special Topic will support projects focusing on the protection of geological formations which are essential to:

• keeping the memory of the evolution of the earth;
• learning from evolving processes to solve emerging problems and
• the success of a future sustainable development of local communities, in particular in terms of resource management, renewable energies, energy efficiency, farming, land use and peatland management.

The call for Geoheritage for Sustainable Development will provide seed funding to projects applying best practices and to projects contributing to the strengthening and empowering of local communities to ensure that the geological importance of an area can be preserved and promoted for science, education and culture.

• IGCP 714 - 3GEO – Geoclimbing & Geotrekking in Geoparks
• IGCP 727 - Geological heritage - sustainable management of geological hazards and water resources in transboundary region of Kyrgyzstan (2020-2021)
• IGCP 731 - IUGS Geological Heritage sites
• IGCP 751 - 4GEON: Connecting geoparks’ local communities through Earth Heritage Education in four continents

The IGCP is currently supporting 41 projects which are assessed by a peer-review process and have a lifetime of five years.

Projects must focus, inter alia, on high-quality science, be of international importance and societal relevance, show interdisciplinary cooperation, and constitute international participation, including scientists from developing countries.

Annual funding levels range between 5,000 and 10,000 USD to be used exclusively for meetings or workshops. Additional resources are usually needed to ensure the full implementation of the projects’ research goals, and scientists are strongly encouraged to raise such funds.

Project proposals may be submitted by individuals or groups to the IGCP Secretariat accompanied by a letter of endorsement (if possible) from one of the project leader’s National IGCP Committees. Project leaders are strongly advised to inform the UNESCO National Commission representatives and UNESCO Permanent Delegation of their home country.

Call for IGCP project proposals - currently closed

Earth Resources 

• IGCP 665 - Sustainable use of black soil critical zone
• IGCP 685 - Geology for Sustainable Development
• IGCP 697- Building New Tools for Data Sharing and Re-use through a Transnational Investigation of the Socioeconomic Impacts of Protected Areas
• IGCP 741 - Metallogenic prediction, sustainable development and integrated utilization of mineral resources in the Tethys metallogenic domain
• IGCP 766 - Fostering Researchers in the Geosciences (FoRGe)
• IGCP 768 - Short Course on African Metallogeny

Geohazards 

• IGCP 716 - Asian Coastal Resilience Network (ACoRN)

Hydrogeology

• IGCP 663 - Impact, Mechanism, Monitoring of Land Subsidence in Coastal cities
• IGCP 684 - The Water-Energy-Food and Groundwater Sustainability Nexus (WEF-GW Nexus)

Geodynamics

• IGCP 662 - Orogenic architecture and crustal growth from accretion to collision

Geoheritage 

• IGCP 726 - GEOfood for sustainable development in UNESCO Global Geoparks