The mountain and highland focus of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North?South

The present-day world is threatened by increasing insecurity caused by global disparities and processes of global change. While in Europe, the US, and other countries of the “North” climate change has commonly been perceived as the most problematic component of global change, developing and transition countries are affected by a multitude of environmental, political, economic, socio-cultural, and technical development problems and disparities. These occur in many different contexts, and their frequency nd acuteness have greatly increased in the 20th century. The challenge for research that aims to produce knowledge relevant to prevention and mitigation of such problems and disparities is that problems do not occur independently of each other, but are closely interrelated, appearing in clusters. Such clusters of problems can be referred to as “syndromes of global change.”The overall goal of the NCCR North–South is to enhance sustainable development through research partnerships involving institutions within Switzerland and their partners in developing and transition countries. Three long-term objectives have been defined to achieve this goal:

• Promote disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research focusing on sustainable development;
• Help develop institutions and train staff in these fields of research, in partner countries and in Switzerland; and
• Support societies and institutions in partner countries in their autonomous efforts to address syndromes of global change over the long term.