University of Alaska Fairbanks International Polar Year Development Plan

A Climate for Change: IPY Development Plan for the North
As a step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the Arctic region in global context, the UAF IPY Subcommittees for Research, Education and Outreach suggest an IPY Development Plan, incorporating new ideas and efforts to be highlighted and supported in recognition of IPY-4.

Vision Statement
To advance the development, synthesis, and applications of knowledge in the service of societal needs and improvement of the human condition in the North.

Profound change requires profound responses. Major transformations are underway in the North, including (1) regime shifts in climate and the environment, unprecedented in the historical and recent geological record; (2) sweeping impacts of change on Northern populations and cultures; (3) expansion of global geopolitical and economic interests into the North; and (4) increasing interdependence between the Arctic region and global processes. Do we have the institutions, research agendas, curriculum, programs, and partnerships to understand change and meet the challenges?

The International Polar Year offers an opportunity to emphasize the quality of research and educative efforts already in progress, and to make the case for innovative work that contributes to Northern futures. The IPY also affords the unique opportunity to develop international interdisciplinary research and to explore the human dimensions of these scientific questions to an unprecedented degree.

Research, education, outreach, and policy are inextricably linked in the process of understanding how to live well in the North. The interrelationships of geophysical and human dimensions call for interdisciplinary approaches to modeling and monitoring, problem-solving, and impact/policy analysis. Not only are interdisciplinary approaches linking individual disciplines important, but so are the outreach and channels of communication between researchers, educators, arctic residents, stakeholders, policymakers, and society as a whole.

The nation’s only arctic university serves as a world leader in arctic research and in providing premier higher education, with a special emphasis given to Alaska Natives. The more that we are able to develop research and curricula that are responsive to the environmental challenges and human needs of the times and the more that we are able to engage the public in this process, the more effective we will be as an agent of change for long-term stewardship in Alaska and the circumpolar North. By the same token, in a global society no environmental problem is capable of resolution by one nation alone. Engaging international expertise, collaboration, and consortia is important, not only for the relevance to Alaska, but for capacity-building in global science policy.

MISSION
The IPY Development Plan aims at a comprehensive framework for Northern research, education, outreach, and policy that develops a knowledge base for living well in the North; supports research and curricula that are culturally responsive and relevant to critical issues; raises the next generation of questions that focus on change and sustainability in a global context; functions as an agent of change for long-term stewardship in Alaska and the circumpolar North; builds capacity among northern residents and develops a new generation of researchers, scholars, professionals and leaders; and engages the public at all age levels and from all backgrounds in this process.

GOALS
To realize the vision and implement the mission, the UAF IPY Subcommittees for Research, Education and Outreach propose the following goals:

• Elevate the status of IPY, through the National Committee, the National Science Foundation (and other federal agencies), and a cohesive management framework at the university.

• Advance arctic research, with particular emphasis on:
• the significance and impact of coupled natural and social systems;
• interdisciplinary methodologies that link natural and social sciences and humanities;
• initiation and continuation of long term natural and social science monitoring networks;
• science-based policy inquiry directed at an Arctic in transition and global implications of the process.

• Engage in collaborative initiatives, especially international coordination on comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, team projects in research and education.
  

• Engage indigenous communities and other Arctic residents as substantive partners in framing research questions, conducting IPY-related research and applying the results.
  

• Develop an educational “pipeline” approach comprising effective K-12 polar education that is culturally responsive and addresses younger generations, preparing them for university scholarship and growth into Alaska's future researchers, scholars, professionals and leaders in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in addition to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

• Make the “arctic expertise” visible, accessible, and relevant to decision-makers and planners, from the local to the global through outreach and communication to stakeholders and people of all ages and backgrounds in Alaska and other communities both within and outside of the North.

• Facilitate the effective cooperation among UA campuses in developing and implementing IPY-related initiatives.

• Develop the analytical discourse on environmental issues to include problem-oriented research on causative factors and research on applications of science directed at remediation and solutions.

PROTOCOL FOR IPY INITIATIVES
In order to emphasize the inclusive and comprehensive nature of the IPY perspective, the UAF IPY Subcommittees for Research, Education and Outreach suggest that initiatives and projects share a number of common attributes that would identify them as:

(1) Integrated: The changes underway in the North are linked across different sectors, including the environment, energy use, resources, infrastructure, hazards and human activities. Tracking, understanding and predicting such changes calls for integrated approaches at different levels. First, observation systems tracking changes in the environment will likely require some level of integration such that the locale as well as the type and frequency of measurements are co-determined for a broader range of measurements across disciplines. This includes guidance from potential end users or beneficiaries of such data products at the planning and implementation stages. From the perspective of the academic research community, inclusion of end users of data and predictive tools (stakeholders, planners, arctic residents, etc.) in the scientific process can be of substantial value and is part of an obligation towards the public. Second, integration needs to occur at the interface between data streams and prediction or planning tools that assimilate or rely on observations. Third, different types of observation and prediction tools will have to be integrated to arrive at system-level diagnostic and predictive capabilities.

The IPY is an ideal framework for various initiatives that aim to emulate successful integration approaches, such as those implemented in parts of the business sector, and examine their potential relevance to themes touched upon by the IPY.

(2) Interdisciplinary: Environmental, societal, political and economic change underway in the Arctic is interconnected to a degree that arguably has not been observed in the past. Thus, any initiative supported at the University-level, addressing aspects of these changes, should be interdisciplinary in order to further understanding of the North as a system and ensure full transfer of benefits. It should be noted that there may be as much or more of a need for deepening of interdisciplinary ties within broader fields, such as the social sciences or engineering, than between different fields, e.g., the natural and social sciences.

There are several instruments or programs in place at the University that support different aspects of interdisciplinary research. This positions the University of Alaska to take a leadership role in the IPY to advance interdisciplinary research on a broader scale through examination and academic discourse of the methodology, didactics, and science underlying innovative interdisciplinary approaches. A generation of new leaders in science will emerge from the IPY and create an environment that provides for learning opportunities as well as scholarly exchange across disciplines should be one of the hallmarks of successful initiatives.

(3) International: The polar regions have always inspired international teamwork. In an age of limited resources and an ever-increasing array of tools and methods available for the study of the polar regions, international coordination and shared efforts appear more timely than ever. At the same time, environmental, societal, political or economic change does not progress uniformly across the tapestry of northern nations. This offers tremendous opportunities for exchange of information and expertise at the international level, integrating lessons learned in areas affected earlier or more strongly to adapt to and take advantage of change. Along the same lines, initiatives that seek to open up different national perspectives on hemispheric or global events can be of considerable value in overcoming institutional or national barriers. Finally, efforts that are inclusive of non-Arctic (i.e., lower latitude as well as Antarctic) perspectives are of considerable value in expanding our collective horizon and offering the potential for significant advances that come with different tools, expertise, or mindsets, as amply demonstrated by the scientific successes of the International Geophysical Year in 1957/58. This also extends to the inclusion of countries that are impacted by the global dimensions of arctic change but lack the resources or expertise for in-depth engagement.

(4) Connected to Native Alaska: Forging a stronger link to Alaska’s (and the Circumpolar North’s) Indigenous populations is motivated by a number of factors. Traditional ecological knowledge and holistic understanding of the Arctic environment dates much further back in time than that of any Western experts. Furthermore, in the present-day Circumpolar North, Arctic residents are at the forefront of debates about the impacts and responses to environmental change. IPY-4 presents an opportunity to develop more meaningful institutional and collaborative links with Alaska Natives, to entrain and support Alaska Natives in pursuing Master’s or Ph.D. degrees. A successful IPY can only happen by developing a respectful dialog and partnering with those who own and use a significant fraction of the lands where IPY research is likely to occur.

(5) Inclusive of education and outreach: The IPY offers an unprecedented opportunity for the University of Alaska to engage the world in polar research. Through education initiatives reaching all age levels and including both Native knowledge and Western science perspectives, IPY projects at UA will inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers scholars, professionals and leaders. Likewise, outreach initiatives will engage the public in the vital questions that polar research pose, increasing wide-spread understanding of the importance of polar regions.

(6) Legacy value: A final consideration in fostering IPY initiatives is the potential for a legacy or an inheritance derived from the IPY. At the level of our University, this may be simply the creation of a lasting culture, or infrastructure, for cross-campus exchange and synergy in jointly addressing the challenges and opportunities of a North in transition. This legacy needs to be accessible also to sectors of the campus, the state and the general public that are not directly involved or only marginally interested in IPY. On a broader scale, IPY legacy at the University can take the shape of an institution or a recurring event that advances understanding and exchange and is informed by the criteria outlined above.

PROGRAMS
Programmatic recommendations build on existing strengths from the perspective of America’s only arctic university, and are aimed at the holistic understanding of a North in transition. It is expected that the bulk of the IPY research efforts at the University will be supported through external grants, with a strong investment by the National Science Foundation (and other federal agencies) in the overall integration of research, education, and outreach initiatives. Considering the context of “A Climate for Change,” the UAF IPY Subcommittee recommends that the University direct its efforts to an IPY program that will

• empower and support individual faculty and research groups on campus in their efforts to compete for external IPY support,
• enhance successful existing or planned IPY projects by adding dimensions to this work that will broaden the impact of research and education at the University through integration and synergy,
• foster an enduring culture of national and international scholarly exchange that will allow individuals, research groups and the University to advance our understanding, prediction and response to sweeping changes underway in the polar regions, and
• build on existing models, and create new and innovative education, training and outreach programs for people of all ages and backgrounds.

The theme that informs and elevates all these individual efforts and programs is that of a “Science of Integration”, with a focus on the changing North. As defined by Holling (1999)

“A science of integration combines research and application, is interdisciplinary and faces the realization that knowledge of the system we deal with is always incomplete. It acknowledges that surprise is inevitable and that there will rarely be unanimity of agreement among peers - only an increasingly credible line of tested argument. Not only is the science incomplete, the system itself is a moving target, evolving because of the impacts of management and the progressive expansion of the scale of human influences on the planet.”

The University is in a unique position to contribute substantially to such newly evolving integration science by virtue of its location, the diversity and scope of existing research and educational progra