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Circumpolar Nations Join Canada in Creating an Alliance of Arctic Research Networks

QUEBEC, May 25 - Arctic research networks from Russia, Norway, France and the United States are taking part in a Canadian-led initiative that will provide the most comprehensive picture yet of the impact of climate change on the entire Arctic region.

The ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence has been awarded $815,000 in new funding by the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) to create an international alliance of Arctic research networks, where scientists will share technical expertise and data on the region of the world most affected by climate change.

"We cannot get an accurate sense of the circumpolar scale changes happening in the Arctic by limiting ourselves to studying just the Canadian Arctic. Whether it's the Canadians, Americans or others, we all need an Arctic synthesis of what's going on. By focusing on only the Canadian Arctic, we miss half the picture," says Dr. Louis Fortier, Scientific Director of ArcticNet.

The international alliance of research networks will produce the intelligence Canada needs to respond to major Arctic issues moving to the forefront of the country's agenda, including the health of Inuit, intercontinental shipping, national sovereignty and oil and gas development.

Inuit collaborators from around the world will play a major role in the new International Partnership Initiative. Funds will help ArcticNet's Inuit partners to attend international meetings in Canada and abroad. "This initiative will provide the opportunity to enhance linkages with the best Centres of excellence in the rest of the world, improving not only ArcticNet's network, but also circumpolar Inuit networking capabilities on an international level," said Duane Smith, President, Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) and Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

Through the funding of a new international Ph.D. School and a major international Arctic meeting in 2008, a key goal of this Canadian-led initiative is to help train a new generation of Arctic scientists who are highly skilled, internationally connected and comfortable working in multidisciplinary teams with researchers from the health, social and natural sciences.

"These young trainees, whether they are masters, Ph.Ds or post-doctoral fellows, are already forming the next international network of scientists. They are getting to know each other, work together in the field, and share ideas at scientific meetings all over the world," adds Dr. Fortier.

In 2007 and 2008, ArcticNet investigators and students will work aboard a Russian icebreaker in the Siberian Sea, effectively doubling their access to the Arctic Ocean. Their partnership with the Russia-led Nansen-Amundsen Basin Observational System (NABOS) Network represents one of the most active and promising international collaborations in Arctic geography.

The partnership with NABOS will also give Canadian investigators privileged access to data from that network's Long-Term Oceanic Observatory, which records temperature, salinity, water velocity/direction and ice draft in the Siberian Arctic Ocean. As well, ArcticNet and NABOS, along with Norway's ARCTOS Network and France's DAMOCLES Network, are coordinating their oceanic observatories into a network that will provide an unprecedented view of the peripheral circulation that dictates the oceanic heat balance in the Arctic Basin.

"Thanks to a forward-looking investment by the Government of Canada, we are connecting with foreign networks which have the means to access the rest of the Arctic Ocean," adds Dr. Fortier. "Not only are we now taking our due place in an international network of networks, we're taking the leadership on it."

Networks of Centres of Excellence are unique partnerships among universities, industry, government and not-for-profit organizations aimed at turning Canadian research and entrepreneurial talent into economic and social benefits for all Canadians.

ArcticNet brings together scientists in the natural, human health and social sciences and decision makers with their partners in Inuit organizations, northern communities, government and industry to help Canadians face the impacts and opportunities of climate change and globalization in the Arctic. Over 110 ArcticNet researchers and 300 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and technicians from 28 Canadian universities and five Federal departments collaborate on thirty research projects with more than 100 partner organizations from Canada, the USA, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Greenland and France.

For further information: Martin Fortier, Executive Director, ArcticNet, (418) 656-5830, www.arcticnet.ulaval.ca