START, founded in 1992, promotes research-driven capacity building that advances knowledge generation and sharing on global environmental change issues.

We promote capacity development through activities such as grants and fellowships for research and assessments, curricula development, advanced training institutes, and multi-stakeholder dialogues that promote outreach to decision makers. START’s work advances science and strengthens interactions between science, policy, and practice in the areas of disaster risk reduction, land-use/land-cover change, biodiversity conservation, urban development, human health, water resources management, agriculture and food security, and regional climate modeling and climate services.

On an annual basis, START engages over 1,000 scientists, policymakers and practitioners from developing countries in its research, training and communications/outreach programs.