The National Academies will assemble a multidisciplinary ad hoc committee of experts to undertake a consensus study on the potential functions of a new Center for Paleoenvironmental Records of Extreme Events (CPREE). The appointed committee of experts shall:

· Provide an overview of existing facilities and online resources where PREE data are currently held or stored (e.g., federal, state, local agencies; Tribal nations; academic institutions)

· Develop major goals and objectives for a new CPREE (e.g., leveraging existing PREE collections, providing long-term maintenance and access to samples, creating an inventory of records across institutions, and determining whether the center’s scope encompasses terrestrial, coastal, and marine events versus a focus on events originating offshore)

· Define criteria to be considered for establishing a CPREE. These could include:

o Organizational structure (e.g., distributed, centralized, multi-partner, types of organizations that could be involved)

o Resources available to support establishment of a CPREE and options for funding and maintaining the center in subsequent years (e.g., space, workforce, technology and infrastructure, and access to complementary facilities and expertise).