Building Community in Arctic Research: Communication, Research Support, and Multi-Knowledge System Integration

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The Arctic is a region of significant strategic, economic, and ecological importance to the nation. Arctic research projects and researchers span a wide variety of topics, from different disciplines, institutions, and perspectives, to understand the Arctic system and its connections to the rest of the world. The overarching goals of the project are to nurture and sustain collaborations across the diverse disciplines, sectors, and perspectives to support transformative scientific advances; to broaden and diversify participation in the Arctic research enterprise; to strengthen two-way communications among a variety of stakeholders; and to improve outreach to the interested public. Project activities will focus on five key areas: 1) Research community support, which will include: fostering Arctic research initiatives through virtual tools, providing support for emerging research teams, tracking success from project activities, and targeted support for early-career researchers; 2) Networking activities, including network analysis to evaluate how different segments of the Arctic research community are participating in collaborative activities, and in-person events to bring together members of the Arctic research community to work towards common goals; 3) Collaboration with Indigenous communities and knowledge systems, including integration of Indigenous knowledge with weather and ice predictions, connecting Arctic Indigenous leaders with other decision-makers, and other support for Indigenous scholars at all career levels; 4) Communications and outreach webinars, newsletters, a virtual Arctic citizen science conference, mailing lists, and website resources; and 5) Support of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), a U.S. interagency body that consists of agencies, departments, and offices across the Federal government who meet regularly to coordinate federally-funded research in the Arctic. The project's networking, research community support, and IARPC support tasks will result in researchers and funders coming together to explore new and creative ways to collaborate in Arctic research. The project's communication activities will disseminate Arctic research to a broad audience to highlight its relevance to society, and result in stronger ties between the research community, citizen scientists, and other stakeholders. The collaboration activities with Arctic Indigenous knowledge holders will enhance diversity in research collaborations, thereby improving knowledge of the Arctic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.