Vision

The Arctic Science Partnership will be a leading consortium on climate, cryosphere, ecosystems, and human interactions through research, monitoring and education.

Mission

To facilitate and integrate active scientific cooperation between the ASP and its members.

Strategies

• Joint projects, field campaigns, workshops
• Sharing facilities (labs, instruments, field stations, logistics, ships)
• Joint positions (staff, technicians, students, visiting scientists)
• Joint observatories and data sharing
• Joint publications and acknowledgements
• Education, outreach and capacity building in the Arctic
• Collaborative work on industry relevant assessments
• Development of new environmental Arctic technologies
• Information dissemination

Memorandum of Understanding

The Arctic Science Partnership (ASP) founding group in front of the Clayton H. Riddell building at University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 31 May 2011: From left: Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen (GINR), Jesper Madsen (AU), Søren Rysgaard (GINR/AU/UoM), Ronnie Glud (SDU), Torben Røjle Christensen (AU/GINR), David Barber (UoM).

• The initial founding of the Arctic Science Partnership (ASP) cooperation took place at a founder group meeting in May- June 2011in Winnipeg.
• A Memorandum of Understanding was singed at a meeting in Nuuk on June 8th 2012 between the Aarhus University (AU), Greenland Institue of Natural Resources (GINR), and the University of Manitoba (UoM).
• In 2016-17 the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) also became a partner of ASP.
• In 2019 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ASP and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
• In 2020 a Collaboration Agreement was signed between ASP and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
• In 2020 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ASP and University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

8 QUESTIONS GUIDING ASP RESEARCH

1. How does climate change impact the Arctic cryosphere and what are the implications for the cryosphere’s interactions with land, ocean and atmosphere?
2. What controls the marine and atmospheric transport of contaminantsto the Arctic?
3. How can proxies of palaeoclimate/ecology inform us of changes in ocean current, wind systems, precipitation, future Arctic climates and their ecological consequences?
4. What are the consequences of these drivers (1-2) for i) ecosystem productionand function? and ii) chemical contaminants affecting ecosystems and human exposure?
5. What are the impacts of the transition and environmental changes on the Arctic population’s lifestyle and changes in disease patterns?
6. What will be the combined effects of natural and anthropogenic forcing on ecosystems and their services?
7. How can technology developments and implementation help us to connect scientific data needs with operational capability in the Arctic?
8. What are the feedbacks between the Arctic and Earth climate system?