Consensus Building Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Team Awarded Grant for Climate Change Role-Play Project

DATE:  FOR RELEASE AUGUST 8, 2012

Cambridge, MA - The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been jointly awarded a two-year $637,000 grant from the Science Collaborative program of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) for a project called “Capacity of Coastal Communities to Address Climate Change Risk Through the Use of Role-Play Simulations”. Announced by NERRS on August 2, 2012, the grant’s objective is to measure the extent to which tailored role-play simulations incorporating scenario planning can enhance collaborative efforts to assess climate change risks, and build consensus on appropriate adaptation measures.  

Working in conjunction with four New England coastal states NERRS Reserve Managers and public officials in Barnstable, Massachusetts; Dover, New Hampshire; Cranston, Rhode Island; and Wells, Maine — the CBI/MIT team will design and implement role-play simulations to help residents and community leaders assess the climate change risks facing their communities and determine whether they can reach agreement on appropriate adaptation strategies. The Principal Investigator is Mr. Patrick Field, Managing Director of CBI, who will work with Lawrence Susskind, Ford Foundation Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at MIT. Four MIT graduate students will serve as staff to the Reserves and town governments involved.  

NERRS, established by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, is a partnership program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and coastal states to study and protect vital coastal and estuarine resources.

CBI (www.cbuilding.org) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1993 by leading practitioners and theory builders in the fields of negotiation and dispute resolution. We empower stakeholders — public and private, government and community — to resolve issues, reach better, more durable agreements and build stronger relationships using our Mutual Gains Approach. Our experts bring decades of experience brokering agreements and building collaboration in complex, high-stakes environments — and we share our approach with others through partnership, research, and teaching at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, MIT, and other leading institutions.


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