In spring 2011, the International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC) in partnership with the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), ArcticNet, and the International Arctic Research Center, held a meeting at the University of Alaska Fairbanks that brought together representatives of diverse arctic organizations from 11 different nations to discuss the future of collaboration and cooperation in arctic environmental change research. The final report of that meeting is now available at http://www.arcticchange.org.
Meeting goals were to:
- Identify mechanisms for improving international cooperation in arctic environmental change research programs;
- Begin planning for an Arctic Observing Summit; and
- Implementation of the Responding to Change component of the ISAC Science Program.
Major outcomes from the meeting included:
- A detailed overview of many existing programs and collaborative agreements among nations and institutions;
- Expansion of the scientific planning process to include new scientific communities;
- Agreement on the need to continue to pursue and expand collaborations, avoid duplication of effort and improve coverage of observation programs;
- Itemization of key questions and issues that need to be addressed to expand and improve international collaboration in arctic research;
- Identification of specific actions by ISAC to facilitate information flow and collection;
- Development of recommendations for activities leading to an Arctic Observing Summit;
- Agreement on next steps in Arctic Observing Summit planning;
- Identification of diverse stakeholder communities in different nations; and
- Recommendation for the scope and structure of the first ISAC Responding to Change workshop.
To download the full report, please go to: http://www.arcticchange.org
