2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016)

February 10 - 15, 2016

Arctic Research as a Model for Responsible International Collaboration

The Arctic is both an extremely fragile and hostile environment, and one that remains largely unexplored and undefined. Its terrestrial and marine ecosystems hold enormous potential for improving our understanding of planetary dynamics such as climate change and ocean acidification, meeting our future energy needs, and feeding a growing world population. Realizing this potential, however, will demand global scientific engagement on an unprecedented scale, because no one nation has the geographic, scientific, or financial assets necessary to conduct large-scale, multidisciplinary explorations in its vast and forbidding territory. Enabling this engagement will require addressing challenging scientific questions, building large-scale and expensive research infrastructure, reaching international diplomatic agreements, and working with those who are native to the region. Focusing on research infrastructure as a key enabling factor, participants in this session describe and debate the elements of international collaboration that lead to successful knowledge creation and the sustainability of the scientific enterprise; the opportunities for engagement resulting from the European Union-U.S.-Canada Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation; and the responsibilities of researchers, research funders, infrastructure managers, and policymakers to ensure that scientific exploration leads to positive and beneficial outcomes for Northerners, Arctic nations, and the planet.