ELOKA Phase V: Collaborative Data Stewardship and Knowledge Mobilization for Arctic Community-Driven Research and Observing

北极地方观测和知识交流项目（ELOKA）与土著组织和研究人员合作，促进土著知识和社区观测的收集、保存、交流和利用。这些对北极科学的贡献对于了解该地区的土著人民和社区如何观察、理解和应对其已被占领数千年的领土景观中的快速环境和社会变化至关重要。该合作奖支持ELOKA与阿拉斯加、加拿大、格陵兰岛、北欧和俄罗斯的合作伙伴的合作，以确保来自社区研究和观测的信息得到保护和保存，同时也使北极居民、研究人员、管理人员和政策制定者能够发现、获取和使用。该项目将在社区层面建立数据管理能力，开发存储和共享数据和知识的数字工具，并确定更好地评估数据和知识使用情况的方法，以满足管理和决策需求，例如与气候适应和社区规划、环境和野生动物管理以及文化和就地教育相关的需求。ELOKA的合作项目活动将有助于改善土著人民的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）培训、教育和领导机会，土著人民是STEM领域代表性不足的少数群体。在第五阶段，ELOKA将与研究人员和北极土著社区合作，开发一个社区数据管理（CDM）系统，重点是提高社区研究和观测的有效性，同时支持数据主权。作为四个目标中的第一个目标，ELOKA将通过召集两个以地名和长期观察为重点的专题工作组，共同制定一个框架，以评估清洁发展机制数字数据基础设施的使用和有用性。工作组成员将共同开发用例，以记录、检查和探索社区和其他最终用户如何使用数据管理工具的增强功能。这些将被综合起来创建一个框架，用于开发有用和可用的CDM应用程序。其次，该项目将共同开发工具，包括增强和新的数字应用程序，使社区数据在自然资源管理、土地利用规划、教学和课程开发、语言和文化保护以及北极变化的长期观测方面更加可用和有用。第三，ELOKA将通过在伙伴社区提供培训，在北极科学会议和会议上提供小型讲习班，以及在社区机构（包括学校、野生动物管理和猎人/采集者组织以及社区和区域规划办公室）推广使用ELOKA开发的地图集和数据库，来建设数据管理和土著数据主权的能力。第四，本项目将共同制定和实施监测和评估框架，以指导项目评估和学习。ELOKA将通过协作共享数据和信息，结合土著和科学知识，为理解和推进知识联合生产做出贡献。一个土著共同生产知识的领导小组将监督研究方案的制定、项目的实施和成果的传播。ELOKA研究将推进整个北极地区社区驱动和用户知情的数据管理系统设计实践，有可能为北极观测网络做出贡献，并在面对加速的社会和环境变化时显著改善预测、规划和适应。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA) partners with Indigenous organizations and researchers to facilitate the collection, preservation, exchange, and use of Indigenous knowledge and community-based observations. These contributions to Arctic science are critical for understanding how the region’s Indigenous peoples and communities observe, understand, and respond to rapid environmental and social changes across their territorial landscapes that have been occupied for millennia. This collaborative award supports ELOKA’s work with partners in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, northern Europe, and Russia to ensure that information from community-based research and observing is protected and preserved while also made discoverable, accessible, and useful for Arctic residents, researchers, managers, and policy makers. This project will build data management capacity at the community level, develop digital tools to store and share data and knowledge, and identify ways to better evaluate the use of data and knowledge to address management and decision-making needs, for example, related to climate adaptation and community planning, environmental and wildlife management, and cultural and place-based education. ELOKA’s collaborative project activities will contribute to improved Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) training, education, and leadership opportunities for Indigenous peoples, an underrepresented minority in STEM.In its fifth phase, ELOKA will collaborate with researchers and Arctic Indigenous communities to develop a community data management (CDM) system focused on enhancing the usefulness of community-based research and observing while supporting data sovereignty. As the first of four goals, ELOKA will co-develop a framework to assess the use and usefulness of CDM digital data infrastructures by convening two thematic working groups focused on place names and long-term observing. Working group members will co-develop use cases to document, examine and explore enhancements for how data management tools are used by communities and other end users. These will be synthesized to create a framework for developing useful and usable CDM applications. Second, this project will co-develop tools, including enhanced and new digital applications, to make community data more usable and useful for natural resource management, land use planning, teaching and curriculum development, language and cultural preservation, and long-term observing of Arctic change. Third, ELOKA will build capacity for data stewardship and Indigenous data sovereignty by providing trainings in partner communities, offering mini workshops at Arctic science meetings and conferences, and extending the use of ELOKA-developed atlases and databases in community institutions, including schools, wildlife management and hunter/harvester organizations, and community and regional planning offices. Fourth, this project will co-develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework to guide project assessment and learning. ELOKA will contribute to understanding and advancing knowledge co-production through collaborative sharing of data and information that engages both Indigenous and scientific knowledge. An Indigenous co-production of knowledge leadership team will oversee the development of a research protocol, implementation of the project, and dissemination of results. ELOKA research will advance practices for community-driven and user-informed design of data management systems across the Arctic, with the potential to contribute to Arctic observing networks and to significantly improve prediction, planning and adaptation in the face of accelerating social and environmental change.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.