The Workshop will be held on November 7-8, 2006 at The Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, An-wai, Beijing, 100101, China.

Background
Since 2004, NEESPI participants were able to seed a first set of proposals to the international (NATO, European Union, GEF) and national funding agencies and institutions (e.g., in the United States, Russia, Japan, UK, Germany, Finland, and Hungary), and to the International Polar Year (IPY). Some of these proposals have already been funded and officially joined to NEESPI (54 of them), other proposals have been funded (more than 20 of them) and a process of their recognition by NEESPI is on the way, but a large group of proposals is still under review. During the past 18 months, the NEESPI program became an entity of several ESSP Projects and Programs GCP, GWSP, GLP, iLEAPS, CliC, and IGBP) and has requested for itself from the Earth System Science Partnership Program (ESSP) leadership the status of the ESSP Integrated Regional Study with a focus on fundamental research to address global change in the northern part of Eurasia. Increase of the number of funded projects and their diversity creates a real challenge with scientific coordination among the projects and access to their data. Therefore, in summer-autumn 2005, the NEESPI community realized a need for clustering the research (and researchers) around several Thematic and Regional Focus Research Centers. These Centers began gradually evolving around the lead scientists with funded NEESPI Projects who are linked to international Research Projects (e.g., iLEAPS, GLP, GWSP, CliC, IPY, etc)1. Focus Research Centers that address specific research issues within the NEESPI domain are vital to the success of the NEESP Initiative. . They allow NEESPI to leverage existing projects and programs and expand its participation in order to fulfill its missions. Regional Focus Research Center for Dry Land Processes Studies (Beijing, China) will be a prominent member of this Group. It’s First” full size” Workshop will be held 7-8 November 2006 at the Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resource Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the framework of preparation of this Workshop, a small preparatory workshop was held in Beijing on May 4, 2006. Its summary (in English and Chinese) has been posted at the NEESPI web site (http://neespi.org) attached to the information about the present Workshop.

The forthcoming Workshop will focus on the following activities:
1. Inauguration of the Regional NEESPI Focus Research Center on Dry Land Processes Studies in Beijing.

2. Overview of ongoing activities within several other NEESPI Focus Research Centers and NEESPI Science and Services Support Centers

3. Discussion on: (a) research activities by NEESPI funded (related) projects in dryland regions of Northern Eurasia; (b) ongoing research projects in East Asia (particularly those in China); (c) future research activities planned for the dryland regions within the NEESPI domain, including joint national and international collaborative proposals; (d) tasks of the Regional FRCs and their coordination with Topical FRCs and Science and Data Support Centers; and (e) coordination with other ESSP Projects and Programs (iLEAPS, GCP, GWSP, GLP, CliC, GEWEX, and MAIRS). A detailed program of the Workshop will be posted on the NEESPI web site. Second circular with more information on logistics will be send on or around August 15th, 2006. Meanwhile, invitees, who are planning to attend the ESSP Conference (9-12 November, 2006), are cordially advised to plan to be in Beijing 2 days earlier and take advantage of the ESSP Conference logistics.

Host: Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, CAS

Sponsors: NEESPI program, IGSNRR, Michigan State University
Restricted funds are available to support travel for the invitees from the region: (please, contact Dr. Jiaguo Qi, Michigan State University, qi@msu.edu )

Local Point for Contact:
The Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, An-wai, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China Detailed information will be soon available (on or around August 15th, 2006). Meanwhile, questions regarding workshop in general can be sent to one of the organizers.

Workshop Organizers:
Jiyuan Liu
Director General, Professor
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research
Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.11A,Datun Road,Anwai,Beijing 100101,P.R.China;
Tel:+86 10 6488 9281 Fax:+86 10 6485 1844; E-mail: liujy@igsnrr.ac.cn
Jiaguo Qi, Director and Associate Professor
Center for Global Change and Earth Observations
1405 S. Harrison Road, Manly Miles Building 218, Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48823, Tel. 517-353-8736 or 517-432-4753
Fax. +1 517-353-2932; E-mail: qi@msu.edu
Garik Gutman, Manager
LCLUC Program, , NASA HQ,
300 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20546
Tel: 202-358-0276; Fax: 202-358-2770; E-mail: ggutman@nasa.gov
Pavel Ya. Groisman, NEESPI Project Scientist, UCAR Project Scientist at NCDC
National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801, USA
Ph. +1 (828) 271-4347; Fax: +1 (828) 271-4328; E-mail: Pasha.Groisman@noaa.gov