"The last 2000 years form a critical period in global climate history. They span a significant length of time prior to major anthropogenic influences on climate and include the shift to industry-based societies. Lack of data from the Southern Hemisphere limits our understanding of climate change and ability to differentiate and delineate interactions between natural, forced and stochastic variability. High-resolution data spanning the last 2000 years from key locations in the Southern Hemisphere are urgently needed to advance climate research globally. Tasmania is a key location for climate studies. The climate is dominated by the Southern westerlies and influenced by the El Nino Southern Oscillation and Southern Annular Mode. Previous palaeoclimate work has demonstrated records contain a genuine Southern Hemisphere climate signal. In-situ multi-channel reflectance spectroscopy (RS) is a novel approach for reconstructing temperature and precipitation from lake sediments. A series of lake sediment cores will be collected along the dominant climate gradient in Tasmania (west-east). In-situ RS in combination with high-precision chronologies developed using 210Pb and 14C will be used to reconstruct temperature and precipitation over the last 2000 years. TASCLIM is the first study of its kind in the Australasian region. It will produce high-resolution quantitative climate reconstructions with known uncertainties, significant new data and contribute to better understanding of regional, inter-hemispheric and global climate change and dynamics. The University of Bern and related institutional networks (OCCR, NCCR Climate, IGBP-PAGES) offer world-class facilities with a unique range of scientific expertise and excellent network for scientific exchange and transfer of knowledge. TASCLIM directly contributes to European and international programs, while providing a framework for the researcher to develop an independent scientific career and basis for long-term collaboration."