The Committee engaged with the Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), which was the latest Centre of Excellence established by the Department. It was managed by the CSIR as a national programme. ACCESS is an integrated and end-to-end research and education services and training programme. Its mandate is the development and implementation of a national and regional programme to produce a new generation of scientists, technologists and decision-makers within the Earth Systems Science (ESS) domain. ACCESS is one of the most important implementation platforms of the TYIP's Global Change Grand Challenge and aims to change the way science and education and training in ESS is done. The Committee in its interaction with ACCESS welcomed the integrated implementation plan that consolidates the earth systems sciences agenda from 2011 to 2018.