Mission

The CAP/RISA Program

GLISA is one of 12 Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP, formerly known as RISA) supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office that focus on advancing equitable adaptation through sustained regional research and community engagement.

The NOAA CAP program is an applied research and engagement program that expands society’s regional capacity to adapt to climate impacts in the U.S. The CAP/RISA program supports sustained, collaborative relationships that help communities build lasting and equitable climate resilience. Funded by 5-year cooperative agreements with NOAA, the work is accomplished by teams of research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state/local/Tribal governments in multi-state regions. CAP/RISA teams engage in a variety of applied and co-developed research and engagement with communities. A central tenet of the CAP/RISA program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. Learning about and doing adaptation happens within social contexts. As such, the CAP/RISA program supports networks of people working together to plan for and adjust to change using science and local knowledge.

Started in 1995, early decades of the program focused on understanding the use of climate information at regional scales (e.g., through experimental seasonal outlooks), improving predictions and scenarios, building capacity for drought early warning, and advancing the science of climate impact assessments. Much of this work is now the focus of other federal programs. More recently, emphasis has shifted to address the growing urgency to advance approaches that tackle the complex societal issues surrounding adaptation planning, implementation, and building community resilience that incorporate the intersection of multiple natural hazards and social stressors. To do so, CAP/RISA continues to prioritize and fund collaborative approaches that incorporate multiple knowledge sources and integrate social, physical, and natural science, resulting in long-term support of and increased capacity for communities. In addition, CAP/RISA supports cutting-edge social science on the impacts of climate change on communities, challenges and opportunities for adaptation, and inclusive methods of engagement. As the adaptation community in the United States advances and evolves, CAP/RISA seeks to support new creative, solution-oriented approaches that are both responsive to communities and that integrate across silos of scientific knowledge and expertise.

*GLISA’s original name stood for the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments to align with the federal RISA program title. In 2022, Congress directed NOAA to change the name of the federal RISA program to the Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP) program to better describe the work now conducted by its regional teams since the program’s inception in the 1990s. During this transition period, we are referring to ourselves as ‘GLISA, the Great Lakes CAP/RISA team,’ moving away from the RISA-affiliated name. “Climate” acknowledges the program’s focus on long-term change and variability. “Adaptation” encompasses approaches to reduce negative impacts of climate change and maximize emerging opportunities. “Partnerships” refers to the web of collaborative relationships between researchers and community decision makers within the regions. It also refers to the larger connections among regional teams that support the peer-to-peer learning that builds local capacity and expertise for national impact. To learn more about the CAP/RISA network, visit NOAA’s webpage.