The APECS Norden Workshop in Helsinki, Finland was a success. From 7-8 April 2014, over 50 early career scientists, mentors and indigenous researchers gathered at the University of Helsinki and Finnish Meteorological Institute to be a part of the APECS Nordic Workshop, “Connecting Early Career Researchers and Community Driven Research in the North”.
Read more ...APECS Nordic Workshop
Culminating the APECS Nordic Project, “Bridging Early Career Researchers and Indigenous Peoples in Nordic Countries” was a 2-day in person workshop entitled “Connecting Early Career Researchers and Community Driven Research in the North” that was held at the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) , and Arctic Observing Summit (AOS) in Helsinki, Finland, 7-8 April, 2014.
The APECS Nordic Workshop brought together approximately 60 key stakeholders including mentors and experts and Early Career Researchers and Indigenous peoples, youth and local expert representatives among indigenous peoples, senior scientists, key representatives of international organizations and other media. APECS worked closely with existing partners such as IASC, Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat to identify and invite workshop participants and mentors. Travel funding to attend the Workshop was available through various sponsors.
The 2-day workshop included plenary sessions, breakout sessions, panel discussions, and group work. The goal of the workshop was to discuss and develop materials that educate and inform about the interactions between ECRs and Indigenous peoples in Nordic regions.
APECS Finland Sauna during ASSW 2014
The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) took place in Helsinki from the 5-11th of April 2014. As part of that conference, APECS organized a workshop on 7 - 8 April on the interaction between scientist and indigenous people in the Arctic.
The APECS Finland National Committee organized a social event for workshop participants, mentors and other interested ASSW participants in the evening of the 7 April. And being in Finland...what else could it be than something related to Sauna. After the official ASSW welcome and reception in the City Hall of Helsinki, about 40 people went cross town to experience this nice side of Finland's culture.
Read more ...Workshop Sponsors
APECS is grateful for the generous support of several sponsor that provided a limited amout of workshop participants with Travel Awards to attend the "Connecting Early Career Researchers and Community-Driven Research in the North". Here is a bit more about our Travel Award sponsors:
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Nordic Council of Ministers
Travel funding and other workshop costs were in part sponsored through the Nordic Council of Ministers' Arctic Co-Operation Programme funding that APECS received for this project.
The Nordic Council of Ministers' Arctic Cooperation Programme has the objective "to support processes, projects and initiatives that will help promote sustainable development and benefit the people of the Arctic under the conditions generated by globalisation and climate change. The programme is administered by Nordregio. More information http://www.nordregio.se/en/Metameny/About-Nordregio/NCM-Arctic-Co-operation-Program-Arktiskt-Samarbetsprogram/
About the Nordic Council of Ministers: It "is the forum for Nordic governmental co-operation. The Prime Ministers have the overall responsibility for Nordic Co-operation. In practice, responsibility is delegated to the Ministers for Nordic Co-operation and to the Nordic Committee for Co-operation, which co-ordinates the day-to-day work of the official political Nordic co-operation." More information http://www.norden.org/en
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International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)
The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is a non-governmental, international scientific organization. The IASC mission is to encourage and facilitate cooperation in all aspects of Arctic research, in all countries engaged in Arctic research and in all areas of the Arctic region. Overall, IASC promotes and supports leading-edge multi-disciplinary research in order to foster a greater scientific understanding of the Arctic region and its role in the Earth system.
IASC provided travel support for eight early career researchers to attend the workshop.
To find out more about IASC, go to www.iasc.info
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Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is a government agency that promotes and co-ordinates Swedish polar research. This includes to follow and plan research and development, as well as to organise and lead research expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat provided travel support for two Swedish participants.
To find out more about the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat go to www.polar.se
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National Science Foundation (NSF)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by US Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare...".The Division of Polar Programs (POLAR) manages and initiates National Science Foundation funding for basic research and its operational support in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The funds are provided as NSF grants to institutions whose scientists perform the research at the institutions or in a polar region.
Through funding from the NSF, twelve early career researchers from the US received (partial) travel support to attend the workshop.
To find out more about the NSF go to www.nsf.gov
Workshop Organizing Committee
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Sandra Juutilainen, Finland
Sandra is currently a PhD-candidate of the Thule Doctoral Program, University of Oulu, Finland. Working as part of an international research project entitled ‘Structural racism and its impact on Indigenous Health – a comparative study of Canada, Finland and Norway’. She formerly worked as a registered dietitian in First Nations communities throughout Ontario and Yukon Territory of Canada and also was involved in health related projects at the provincial and federal level. She is a member of Oneida Nation of the Thames, a Haudenosaunee community in southern Ontario, Canada.
A just-for-fun writing project on her list of things to do is a book about ice-swimming, which will profile research conducted in Finland on ice-swimming, and Finns who participate in this well-being activity. She regains energy from active pursuits: running, paddling, hiking, xc-skiing and ice-swimming.
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Laura Lukes, United States
Laura Lukes is currently part of the Geoscience Learning Process Research Group at North Carolina State University (NCSU) where her research focuses on capturing the student experience in introductory geology courses with the aim of recruiting and retaining a more diverse STEM workforce. She is a passionate and nationally recognized educator (2010 Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching from the Geological Society of America). She currently teaches an introductory Physical Geology lecture course at NCSU and several online geology courses for Rio Salado Community College.
As an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow (2010-2011), she organized and led the Joint Science Education Project (JSEP). JSEP is an international science education field research experience for teachers and students from Greenland, Denmark, and the U.S. on the ice sheet in Greenland. As part of this project, she recruited and coordinated 30+ scientist mentors from over 15 domestic and international institutions and government agencies (e.g., NASA, NOAA) to work with students in the field. Additionally, she built relationships and partnerships with indigenous people to develop research-based experiences for students that were inclusive of indigenous culture and traditional knowledge methods.
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Julie Renee Bull, Canada
Julie Bull is of Inuit descent and is from NunatuKavut, Labrador, Canada. She currently holds the position of Qualitative Research Consultant with the NunatuKavut Community Council and Executive Director for the Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council. Julie is also currently working towards completing an Interdisciplinary PhD in the area of “Aboriginal Research Ethics” at the University of New Brunswick. Julie’s Inuit heritage makes her keen on working with Aboriginal communities. Her study, in partnership with NunatuKavut, examines “Grassroots voices: Authenticity in relationships with academic researchers in the context of Aboriginal health research.” Julie has received numerous awards and recognition in acknowledgement of her scholarly abilities, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Aboriginal Peoples Health Scientific Director’s Award of Excellence, the Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research Program Doctoral Fellowship, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Scholarship, and the Jens Peder Hart Hansen Fellow Award. In 2010, Julie received Canada’s most prestigious doctoral award - the Vanier Graduate Scholarship.
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Laura Fleming-Sharp, United States (ex-officio)
Laura Fleming-Sharp, originally from Ontario, Canada is now living in Washington, DC where she is the Research Assistant at the Arctic Studies Center at the National Museum of Natural History. Laura completed a B.A in International Development Studies and Geography (2005) and later obtained her M.A. in Geography (2009) both at the University of Guelph. Her graduate research focused on human-environment interactions and climate change adaptation in Hopedale, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Canada, exploring the role of formal and informal institutions in facilitating adaptation to climate and other change. Her field studies included spending two months in the community of Hopedale interviewing hunters, elders and institutional representatives at various levels of government. Her research contributed to the 2007-2009 International Polar YearCommunity Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic Regions (CAVIAR)project, and for the Arctic Net Phase I Project 4.2, and Phase II Project 1.1.
Following her graduate studies, Laura assisted the IPY and ArcticNet research projects at the Global Environmental Change Group (GECG) in the Department of Geography, University of Guelph from 2009-2011. In 2012 Laura was the Coordinator for the 18th Inuit Studies Conference, hosted by the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian in October 2012.
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Gerlis Fugmann, Norway (ex-officio)
Gerlis Fugmann is the Director of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). Gerlis has been actively involved in the APECS leadership for several years and is assuming the position of APECS Director beginning on 1 October 2013. She completed her PhD in Geography at the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany in 2011 and worked afterwards for two years as a post-doctoral researcher at the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development (ICNGD) at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Her research focused on projects in the Canadian Arctic and Sub-Arctic as well as Northern Scandinavia, addressing questions of comparative economic deveopment, entrepreneurship, tourism, resource development and Northern engagement and participation in innovation and the knowledge economy.
Throughout her involvement in APECS, Gerlis has contributed significantly to the organization working with numerous APECS members and partners and helping to shape and manage many of the projects, events and resources made available through APECS. Between 2009 and 2011 she served as an Executive Committee member and afterwards continued to mentor and advise the Executive Committee in an ex-officio role. Gerlis also served as the elected APECS President during the 2009 – 2010 term. She has a great interest and appreciation for the polar regions and polar research and very much enjoys collaborating with researchers from around the world. Gerlis is a strong advocate of early career scientist participation, recognizing the importance of networking, professional development, and extra-curricular training in the polar and cryosphere communities.
Mentors & Plenary Speakers
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Lars-Anders Baer, Nordic Saami Council, Sweden
As a member of the Saami Council, Mr. Baer was involved in the pan-Saami movement in the early the 1970’s and was the chairman of the council when the Saami population in Russia was integrated into the pan-Saami movement during the glasnost period at the end of the 1980s. As a key figure in the Saami Council, he was also involved in setting up the development aid programme, which is an indigenous to indigenous programme in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Has been involved in the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations from 1983 onwards.
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Arja Rautio, MD, PhD, ERT, Center for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, Finland
Arja Rautio, research professor, MD, PhD, ERT, has been working in the field of circumpolar health since 2006. She is a director of the Center for Arctic Medicine (www.oulu.fi/arctichealth) at the Thule Institute (www.oulu.fi/thule) in the University of Oulu (Finland). She is leading a PhD graduate program in the Thule Institute, several research projects and the international Master’s program of Circumpolar Health and Wellbeing (http://www.oulu.fi/degree/hw). She is a chair of the University of the Arctic Thematic Network of Health and Wellbeing in the Arctic (www.uarctic.org). Her research focuses are in climate change and human health, social exclusion and indigenous health and wellbeing.
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Roberto Delgado Jr, PhD, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, USA
Dr. Roberto Delgado is currently an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He is a biological anthropologist with expertise in animal behavior, communication, and evolutionary ecology. While at Duke University, he examined the function of adult male long calls on social organization and reproductive strategies among wild orangutan populations in Borneo and Sumatra. His subsequent research while at Hunter College CUNY and USC addressed the demographic and ecological sources of behavioral flexibility, geographic variation, and local adaptation by non-human primates in response to anthropogenic threats and climate change. In addition to extensive fieldwork throughout the Neotropics, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, Roberto is actively involved in wildlife conservation and management issues, and co-chairs the AAAS Biodiversity Affinity Group. He has worked closely with indigenous communities on land-use planning and population monitoring, and has policy interests in biodiversity, ecosystem services, environmental sustainability, international development, enhancing scientific literacy, and furthering minority representation in STEM fields.
At NSF, Roberto is working in the Division of Polar Programs, supporting the goals and activities of the Arctic Sciences Section. In this capacity, he is engaging with the US State Department in Joint Committee Meetings on Science & Technology Cooperation agreements with Arctic nations, working with the US Arctic Research Commission and Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), serving as co-lead on the IARPC Arctic Communities Implementation Team, participating in the Arctic Policy Group, and contributing to international working groups on biodiversity and sustainable development for the Arctic Council.
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Heidi Eriksen, MD, PhD, Utsjoki Health Centre, Finland
Heidi A. Eriksen, MD, PhD, is an indigenous Sámi, working as a general practitioner and chief medical officer in Utsjoki, her home and the northernmost municipality of Finland with indigenous Sámis as majority of population. She was raised in Utsjoki, having a river Sámi background. She has worked at the Utsjoki health care centre since 2005. After finishing her doctoral thesis in a biochemical topic in 2010, her research interest has focused on the health, disease and wellbeing of Sámi and other indigenous peoples. This interest has risen through her basic work with the Sámi population and noticing the lack of stewardship of Sámi people in the health systems, lack of systematically collected data of the health issues and wellbeing of the Sámis. Heidi A. Eriksen has been an elected member of Sámi Parlament 2008-2011 and a member in the social and health board of Sámi Parlament 2008-2011 and 2012-2015. She has been a member of advisory boards of several projects concerning Sámi health and social issues.
Anna Afanasyeva, Indigenous Peoples Adviser, International Barents Secretariat, Norway
Currently working as Indigenous Peoples Adviser at the International Barents Secretariat (IBS), in Kirkenes, Norway. In spring 2013 defended the Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies at the Arctic University of Tromsø on the topic of Forced relocations of the Kola Sámi people: background and consequences, in which discusses implementation of the Soviet policies of forced relocations as associated with the new society-building patterns, restructuring traditional economies and need for active cultural and language preservation for the Kola Sámi today. In the years 2006 – 2010 worked in the field of endangered languages documentation as a student assistant in the research project - Kola Saami Documentation project, based at Department of Northern European Studies, Humboldt University, in Berlin, mainly dealing with fieldwork activity, creating audio recordings of Sámi speakers, annotation and preparation of documented language materials for linguistic analyses. From summer 2014 will be working as P.h.D scholar supported by the Research Council of Norway at the Centre for Sámi Studies, at the Arctic University of Tromsø. The topic of the study will be devoted to analysis of the Assimilation policies in education imposed on the Kola Sámi in 1900’s – 2010’s. I am a Kola Sámi myself, that is why I found research in indigenous communities accounting on the needs and interests of its community members to be extremely important.
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Gail Fondahl, PhD, University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Gail Fondahl is a Professor of Geography at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada’s northernmost research university. She currently serves as the president of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (2011-2014). As well, she is Canada’s representative to, and Vice-Chair of, the International Arctic Science Committee’s Social & Human Sciences Working Group (2011-2015), and Chair of the Social, Economic and Cultural Expert Group of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group (2013-2015). Gail’s research has focused the legal geographies of indigenous rights to land in the Russian North, the historical geography of reindeer husbandry in the Russian North, and co-management of resources and of research in northern British Columbia.
Workshop Agenda
Monday, April 7, 2014 |
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 |
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09:00-09:30 |
Welcome & Introductions Laura Fleming-Sharp Gerlis Fugmann, APECS Director |
Welcome & Recap Laura Fleming-Sharp |
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09:30-09:50 |
GAIL FONDAHL (University of Northern British Columbia) |
LARS-ANDERS BAER (Barents Euro-Arctic Council Working Group of Indigenous People) |
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09:50-10:10 |
ARJA RAUTIO (Thule Institute) |
ANNA AFANASYEVA (International Barents Secretariat) |
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10:10-10:30 |
ROBERT DELGADO JR (University of Southern California/NSF) |
HEIDI ERIKSEN (Utsjoki Health Center) |
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10:30-11:00 |
COFFEE BREAK |
COFFEE BREAK |
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11:00-12:30 |
IASC Presentation: ICARP III David Hik, ICARP Chair Break out Groups: Stakeholders & policies for working with Indigenous groups |
Research Ethics Considerations Sandra Juutilainen & Julie BullBreak out Groups: Successful collaboration models, building a community & broader impacts |
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Break Out Group 1 Room: Tellus, Dynamicum |
Break Out Group 1 Room: Tellus, Dynamicum |
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Break Out Group 2 Room: Brainstorm, Dynamicum |
Break Out Group 2 Room: Brainstorm, Dynamicum |
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12:30-14:00 |
LUNCH |
LUNCH |
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14:00-15:30 |
Break Out Group 3 Room: Tellus, Dynamicum |
Break Out Group 3 Room: Tellus, Dynamicum |
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Break Out Group 4 Room: Brainstorm, Dynamicum |
Break Out Group 4 Room: Brainstorm, Dynamicum |
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15:30-16:00 |
COFFEE BREAK |
COFFEE BREAK |
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16:00-16:30 |
Canadian Polar Commission Dave Scott Report out session: Sharing results from breakout sessions |
Svalbard Science Forum (SSF) Presentation Report out session: Sharing results from breakout sessions |
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16:30-17:30 |
Survey results Ylva Sjöberg, Sarah Nuernberger & Mathilde Mansoz Goals for Day 2 Laura Lukes |
Workshop exit survey Sandra Juutilainen |
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17:30 |
End for day |
End Workshop |
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18:00 |
ASSW Reception Helsinki City Hall APECS Finland Social Event Kattosauna Sivistys (Sauna) |