Coordination Office

The MRI Coordination Office works with the mountain research community to identify research priorities and possibilities for common action, and supports this common action by providing targeted funding, coordination, and administrative assistance. It also strives to keep the research community informed, and works with research organizations and funding agencies to ensure that mountain global change topics are recognized and addressed. The MRI Executive Director oversees the work of the MRI Coordination Office and contributes to the strategic and operational discussions and decisions made within the MRI Governing Body.

Through its activities, the MRI Coordination Office aims to: 1) strengthen the mountain research network; 2) bolster research activity; 3) enable capacity-building; 4) support thematic advocacy for mountains; 5) provide resource opportunities; 6) facilitate science-policy-society interactions; and 7) communicate effectively.

The MRI Coordination Office is hosted by the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Executive Director
Mountain Research Initiative

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About

Carolina Adler, a dual national from Chile and Australia, is an Environmental Scientist and Geographer with an international career spanning over 25 years in both research and practice in the public and private sectors. As the current Executive Director of the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), she is tasked with overseeing the work of the MRI Coordination Office, as well as connecting, coordinating, and promoting global change research and supporting regional and thematic networked collaborations in mountains worldwide.

Carolina Adler obtained her PhD at Monash University (Australia) in 2010, focusing on climate change adaptation and relevant policy processes for sustainable development in mountain regions, receiving the Harold D Lasswell Prize in 2010 for best thesis. Among her many roles, she is also a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth assessment, specifically in the chapter on High Mountain Areas of the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), published in September 2019, as well as the Working Group II contribution on Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation and Co-Lead for the Cross-Chapter Paper on Mountains, published in February 2022. Following a passion for mountaineering, she shares her environmental expertise as a delegate to the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (Union International des Associations d'Alpinisme - UIAA) Mountain Protection Commission, later in 2016 assuming the role of Commission President. When not at her work desk, Carolina is most likely to be found enjoying the great outdoors in the mountains.

Research Interests

Keywords: Social-Ecological Systems, Climate Change; Governance; Risk & Decision-Making; Evidence; Science-Policy Knowledge Systems; Global Assessments; Monitoring & Evaluation; Transdisciplinary Research; Mountains.

Carolina Adler focuses on research activities related to the assessment and evaluation of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations on questions relevant for sustainable development in mountains, as well as the use of scientific evidence in regional and global assessments and their uptake in policy and decision-making contexts.