The annual Arctic Science Partnership (ASP) meeting was the start of a new network of students and young researchers from Canada, Denmark and Greenland. The network will be a forum creating opportunities for cross-border field work and scientific discussions.

By Signe Høgslund and Peter Bondo Christensen

”We have much to contribute with and at many levels of the ASP." That was the clear message from the student group at the annual ASP meeting. Two students from each nation are the backbone of the network and form the new ASP student committee.  The committee's first step is to make the students at the various research institutions aware that they are part of ASP.

Canadian, Danish and Greenland students should be included in the international community on Arctic research and it must be possible for students to meet across research institutions and countries.

Together with the management, the committee will focus on the opportunities offered by ASP to participate in field work and to access data from monitoring programmes and previous field campaigns.

We meet over a beer

The network will act both "in real life", on Facebook and via ResearchGate. It was agreed that personal meetings are important, and the student committee's first initiative will be to gather ASP students and researchers during the Arctic Change conference in Ottawa for a beer at a local bar.

The ASP management supports the student initiative and received much valuable input for educational programmes and future research projects from the student group at the ASP annual meeting.

ASP also offers six courses with focus on the Arctic regions during the first half of 2015. The courses will logistically take place from Nuuk and are open to students from all over the world. During the courses, the students must also act as a kind of mentor for students from the high school in Nuuk. The students must introduce the high school students to scientific thinking, while the high school students should inform the students about Greenland’s culture and traditions.

Even further north

Through 2014, there have been a number of intensive field campaigns within the ASP framework. Among other things, processes in ice, in water and on land have been studied in Young Sund in North-East Greenland through a continuous period of time from March to October. Very important datasets, covering everything from the ice-covered period over the thawing scenario to open water and refreezing of sea ice, have been obtained.

Planning for next year's campaign is in full swing. Station Nord in North-East Greenland at 81 degrees northern latitude will be one of the focal points of 2015.

This northernly located research station opens for the first time in February. Data from this station will be coupled with the North Water/Amundsen campaign where the icebreaker Amundsen becomes the platform from which researchers will examine the atmosphere, oceanography and marine biology in the Nares Strait region between north-western Greenland and north-eastern Canada.

At the annual meeting, the management team informed that they are still working to expand opportunities for field activities in the Arctic – among other places, from well-preserved and restored hunting stations in North-East Greenland.

The annual ASP meeting was held at Kaløvig, Denmark 4-5 November 2014. Photo Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen