hydrocarbons (including coal seam and shale gas) and nuclear sources present a range of geoscientific issues. Water is essential for the sustenance of all life, agriculture, leisure activities, manufacturing industry and (a small proportion) for mineral and energy production. Greater efficiencies of use cannot avoid increasing demand for this precious resource. Geoscience studies are vital in understanding, husbanding and managing water resources, especially groundwater. Given ongoing rapid development of the BRIC economies and the inevitable future development of populous African and other countries, new sources of good quality minerals, energy and groundwater will need to be discovered to satisfy demand in the long term. Finding the massive amounts of natural resources to satisfy the needs of society in the long-term will be challenging and it is important to establish what should be done in the next 10 to 20 years to help. That is the objective of the proposed international collaborative program which IUGS is referring to as Resourcing Future Generations (RFG). The broad concept is that RFG will last about a decade and be an umbrella activity under which a range of new activities related to securing the mineral, energy and water resources required by future generations can be developed, coordinated and funded. It will provide a bridge between industry, academia and geosurveys, and other Unions under ICSU will be invited to participate. The purpose of this article is to outline the rationale for RFG, how it will be developed, contextual issues which need to be considered, indicative scientific questions to be considered and the capacity building and training needs. Rationale Our aspiration for the Resourcing Future Generations initiative is relevant groups from governments, universities, and companies around the world working together to improve resource discovery and development. It is proposed that Earth science research driven by the RFG initiative be fully incorporated into Earth System Science programs. In that regard it is hoped that RFG work will be integrated into the major new global initiative "Future Earth", being implemented by a global consortium led by the International Council for Science (ICSU) http://www.icsu.org/future-earth. It is proposed
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