This year’s theme is Voices of One Health: Embracing Change & Transformation. The event will engage in dynamic conversations and networking opportunities through hands-on workshops, individual/panel presentations, posters, and plenary sessions. There will also be undergraduate discussion groups which will be a great opportunity for students to meet with researchers and discuss research, education, and their career pathways. This event is hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The history of Qallunaat (non-Inuit peoples) on Inuit Nunangat, or Inuit homelands, is a tale that leans towards extractive at best and acutely violent at worst. As with most interactions between Indigenous Peoples in what is now called Canada and eager explorers, settlers, and colonists, the relationship between Inuit and Qallunaat began from a place of altruism. Europeans turned up in the North woefully unprepared, lacking thousands of years of carefully honed skills and knowledge about how to not only survive, but thrive in the Arctic. Inuit are exemplary engineers, naturalists, scientists, nutritionists, hunters, knowledge mobilizers, artists, and healers. Unlike Qallunaat who colonized Canada, they did not need to “master” their territories; instead of shaping the environment to suit them, they lived in harmony with the tundra and the sea with the utmost respect and a bottomless depth of understanding of non-human processes and kin. Inuit have tread so softly that Qallunaat still refer to vast swaths of northern land as “pristine” and “untouched” – untouched, perhaps, by Qallunaat, but Inuit have been lovingly and tenderly caring for the land and the sea that has in turn cared for them for millennia.

By 2050, ships traveling through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage may not need an icebreaker to escort them for the journey. In Nome, residents are wondering whether a new port will help or hinder efforts to address a myriad of chronic social problems. Some are also concerned that an onslaught of industrial marine traffic may impact Indigenous people, who have thrived along the coastline for generations.

Months before a Chinese spy balloon drifted across Alaska and Canada, the Canadian military discovered and retrieved Chinese spy buoys in the Arctic, a region of long interest to Beijing. The Chinese buoys were monitoring U.S. submarines and the melting of ice sheets.

Norway is set to take the helm of the Arctic Council from the Russian Federation, a move that’s being welcomed by Canada. Russia has been the chair of the international organization since 2021 but was barred from meetings and projects after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

As the planet warms, animals that breed in the Arctic are at particular risk. But a new study reported in Current Biology on March 1 offers some encouraging news: in an apparent reaction to pressures along their former migratory route, a population of Arctic geese has rapidly adjusted, forming a new migration route and breeding location almost 1,000 kilometers from their original stomping grounds.

Arctic Circle and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation are pleased to announce new dates for the Japan Forum. The Forum will focus on Asia in the Future of the Arctic: science, geopolitics, economy, oceans, climate, and technology.

The International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR) has been held every two years since 2008 and aims to present and discuss scientific results with researchers on the Arctic from all-over the world, extracting and sharing issues to solve, and exploring the future of the Arctic. ISAR-7 will consist of General Sessions and Special Sessions. General Sessions will address the following topics: atmosphere; ocean and sea ice; rivers, lakes, permafrost, and snow cover; ice sheets, glaciers, and ice cores; terrestrial ecosystems; marine ecosystems; geospacer; laws, politics, and economy; language, culture, and health; and, engineering for sustainable development.

This event is hosted by the Washington Ornithological Society. George Divoky will speak on “The Birdwatcher Who Saw the Future Looks Back on Half a Century of Arctic Change.”

The Friends of Cooper Island will host an annual Seattle Update. In addition to providing an update on the status of our seabird study colony and the melting Arctic, the hosts will share stories (some funny, some sad) about the joy and heartbreak of maintaining a remote field camp for five decades.

The US Arctic Research Commission will hold its 116th meeting in person at the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center (National Park Service) in Kotzebue, AK on March 27th from 1pm – 5pm. Presentations and community discussions will be open to the public from 1pm on March 27th, with a public comment session from 4:30 pm–5pm that day. Agenda to follow.

This 5-day in-person workshop will provide researchers with an introduction to advanced topics in computationally reproducible research in python, including software and techniques for working with very large datasets. This includes working in cloud computing environments, docker containers, and parallel processing using tools like parsl and dask. The workshop will also cover concrete methods for documenting and uploading data to the Arctic Data Center, advanced approaches to tracking data provenance, responsible research and data management practices including data sovereignty and the CARE principles, and ethical concerns with data-intensive modeling and analysis.

As the largest Arctic policy and business conference in the United States, with partners and convenings worldwide, the Arctic Encounter continues to gather leading voices from around the world. The Arctic Encounter is eager to welcome participants to Alaska for a world-class arts and cultural experience, including dialogue and presentations with elected and international leaders, business executives, Indigenous peoples, scientists, students, defense leaders, diplomats, policymakers, and more.

The geopolitical situation and increased interest in the sustainable development of the Arctic have resulted in new Arctic funding strategies from agencies such as ESA, the American NSF, and the EU work programs. The AITC conference will provide opportunities to interact across scientific, civil, and commercial domains, in three overall thematic tracks Sea, cryosphere, and land, ranging from ocean, sea-ice, and land ice including permafrost and ice-free land, to develop new ideas and projects and to create new collaboration aiming for sustainable development of the Arctic regions and especially Greenland.

The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is where energy professionals meet to exchange ideas and opinions to advance scientific and technical knowledge for offshore resources and environmental matters. The conference will include presentations discussing technical solutions, innovations, and advancements of all aspects of the offshore energy industry. Participants will include operators, research, vendors, and stakeholders. The experience of the last 50 years in the Arctic will be in attendance. That expertise and knowledge is available to move forward and support energy, mining, renewables, marine transport, tourism, and other activities in the harshest environments.

The 2023 Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference will focus on Alaska’s role leading the energy transition from established renewable sources to innovative and emerging technologies. World-renowned speakers and experts will highlight the agenda, along with breakout tracks, panel discussions, and multiple networking opportunities.

With support from the National Science Foundation and R/V Sikuliaq operations team and crew, Oregon State hosts an early career chief scientist training cruise June 5-12 as part of a transit from Seward to Nome (AK). This training will also include a series of pre-cruise planning meetings from March to May (a condensed version of a typical pre-cruise preparation process). The goal is to help a cohort of diverse researchers gain skills and confidence in requesting, organizing, and leading scientific surveys on Arctic research vessels at high latitudes.

Interested applicants should apply by February 22.

The 6th biennial "Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit" Conference will be held on 14-15 November 2023 in Rovaniemi, Finland, the birthplace of official Arctic cooperation. This international conference, organized by the City of Rovaniemi and the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, gathers policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders for Arctic discussions. Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, changes in Arctic cooperation will be prominently featured in the conference agenda, and will be explored from the point of view of national and international security, and from a regional perspective, including the Barents region.

In lead up to its 35th anniversary in 2025, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is coordinating a multi-year planning process for the Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV) that will engage Arctic researchers, policymakers, residents, and stakeholders from around the world to collegially discuss the state of Arctic science, the place the Arctic occupies in global affairs and systems, to consider the most urgent knowledge gaps and research priorities that lie before us and to explore avenues to address these research needs. This event is hosted by a consortium of US institutions, including the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Northern Iowa, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Alaska Pacific University. ICARP I, II, and III focused the attention of the world’s researchers toward the value of strategic international coordination in accelerating progress in addressing critical challenges. ICARP IV will build upon this concept by striving to achieve consensus and build collaborations among the leading scientific, academic, environmental, Indigenous and political organizations currently concerned with Arctic issues.