|
NNA Community Newsletter
December 2023 Issue
| |
- 2024 NNA Annual Community Meeting Updates
- Upcoming NNA-CO Events
- Reminder: Call for Arctic Outreach Fair Flash Talks
- Postdoc Fellowship Opportunity at University of Colorado Boulder
- Arctic Data Center Workshop: Scalable and Computationally Reproducible Approaches to Arctic Research
- Special Issue of Environmental Research Ecology - Climate Change and Permafrost Ecosystems: Integrating Scientific, Indigenous and Local Knowledge to Understand Impacts on Coupled Socio-Ecological Systems
- NNA Project Highlight: Developing capacity for planning and adapting to riverbank erosion and its consequences in the Yukon River Basin
- Upcoming Events
| |
2024 NNA Annual Community Meeting Updates | |
|
Communicating Science to Policy: Writing Policy Briefs on Why your Science Matters
Session 1: January 18, 2024 | 11:00am-12:30pm MT
Session 2: February 15, 2024 | 2:00-3:30pm MT
This workshop will discuss the process and benefits of communicating the societal relevance of research through short (1-2 page) policy briefs. Participants have the opportunity to work on developing a brief with experienced guidance. Two online sessions—one in January and one in February 2024—and a session at the NNA Annual Community Meeting will provide opportunities for learning, sharing, and collaboration. Participants can join all sessions for maximum benefit and progress on their briefs or join fewer sessions to learn the basics. This event is organized by the NNA-CO in partnership with the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), which offers the potential to publish briefs as part of "Arctic Answers"—a special peer-reviewed section with the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. More details can be found here.
Each session will be 90 minutes in length. This series is designed to benefit participants who wish to join both virtual events and for participants who can only join one of the events.
Session 1 registration | Session 2 registration
| |
NNA-CO Science Storytelling Series: Creating Virtual Tours with Infiniscope
January 25, 2024 | 12:00-1:00pm MT
Take your audience anywhere. Virtual field trips give your audience a sense of place and purpose. This one-hour workshop will introduce you to Infiniscope, virtual field trips, and the technology needed to create your own engaging virtual field trip. Infiniscope will cover tips and lessons learned as well as demonstrate examples of virtual tours from a community-based project in Hawaii as well as Polar Explorer.
Learn more and register here.
| |
|
Indigenous Evaluation Workshop: Honoring Reconciliation in Evaluation: Wearing an Indigenous Evaluation Lens
Part 1: February 2, 2024 | 11:00am-2:30pm MT
In this introductory Indigenous evaluation workshop, participants will examine their personal perceptions, bridge the gap between Western theory and Indigenous perceptions of evaluative thinking, and begin to utilize evaluation tools. Facilitators will lead participants through the implementation, analysis, and reporting of two major tools that act as interventions. This workshop is organized for the broader Navigating the New Arctic community. It is designed to build awareness about Indigenous evaluation and build foundational knowledge. Anyone from novice to expert is invited to attend this training.
Part 2: February 9, 2024 | 11:00am-2:30pm MT
Participants dive deeper into evaluation topics in this more advanced Indigenous evaluation workshop. Participants will explore what is considered a decolonized lens for measuring and defining success and explore the disconnect between that lens and current metrics. The training will guide participants to understand how evaluation can contribute to this shift and how evaluators can act as agents of change. This workshop is steadfast in strength-based solutions that honor, respect, and embrace Indigenous Knowledge. This workshop details this new way of business that supports decolonization and undertakes such direction using steps and stages that can be adopted, to suit participants' current research project and evaluation contexts. This workshop is organized for the broader Navigating the New Arctic community. It builds on the workshop part 1. It is designed so that those experienced with Indigenous evaluation will learn new content.
You are welcome to register for either or both workshops. Limited spots are available and priority will be given to those affiliated with NNA-funded projects. We will contact you before the event to confirm your spot. The deadline to register is February 1, 2023 at 11:59pm MT. Please fill out this form to express your interest in participating, and visit our website for more information on the workshops.
| |
Reminder: Call for Arctic Outreach Fair Flash Talks | |
|
Do you want an opportunity to connect your NNA project to Arctic community members and decision-makers across Alaska? The NNA-CO is hosting a session of NNA flash talks in the upcoming Arctic Outreach Fair that will take place as part of the Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) on February 7, 2024 at 2:00pm Alaska Time. AFE gathers environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses, community leaders, and Alaska youth to discuss the latest projects, processes, and issues that affect the environment in Alaska.
If you are interested in participating, please fill out the form below. If accepted, we will ask you to prepare a 3-minute flash talk about your project’s relevance to Arctic communities and what outreach opportunities you have to offer attendees. The session will be a hybrid event, with both in-person and online audience members. Your flash talk may be in-person, online, or pre-recorded. We will hold a practice flash talk session prior to the event.
Apply here for one of our 10 spots in the Arctic Outreach Fair by January 9, 2024 at 11:59pm MT. Any questions? Email alyse.thurber@colorado.edu.
| |
Postdoc Fellowship Opportunity at University of Colorado Boulder | |
|
The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder is inviting applications to their annual Visiting Fellows Program (VFP) to stimulate interdisciplinary research across the institute. VFP applicants require the support of a current CIRES Fellow or CIRES Senior Research Scientist, who would serve as the institutional host for a fellowship.
The NNA-CO, which is led out of CIRES, is encouraging applications from prospective postdocs interested in developing a research project that focuses on the practice of co-production of knowledge, supporting action-oriented Arctic research, or communicating the outcomes and societal benefits of NNA research. Please reach out to NNA-CO Director, Matthew Druckenmiller (druckenmiller@colorado.edu), if you’d like to discuss a potential application and learn more about the VFP.
The deadline for applications is January 2, 2024. Visit the VFP webpage for more information.
| |
Arctic Data Center Workshop: Scalable and Computationally Reproducible Approaches to Arctic Research | |
|
March 25-29, 2024
Held in person at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, CA.
The Arctic Data Center has applications open for an upcoming workshop "Scalable and Computationally Reproducible Approaches to Arctic Research" until December 22, 2023. 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.
Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your data science skills from March 25-29, 2024. This course is intended for those who need to take their skills to the next level to maximize efficiency working with big datasets or running computing-intensive processes. If you feel this is you, apply now to secure your spot!
Application deadline: December 22, 2023
Learn more here.
| |
Special Issue of Environmental Research Ecology - Climate Change and Permafrost Ecosystems: Integrating Scientific, Indigenous and Local Knowledge to Understand Impacts on Coupled Socio-Ecological Systems | |
The goal of this focus collection is to gather contributions from a wide range of fields that can facilitate establishing links among scientists with different backgrounds, including social scientists that are bringing a social dimension into the understanding of the impact of climate change in the Arctic.
Submission deadline: April 30, 2024
Learn more here.
| |
|
Developing capacity for planning and adapting to riverbank erosion and its consequences in the Yukon River Basin
As rivers erode their banks, they digest the land, threatening community infrastructure, toppling trees, and liberating material from deep below the land surface. Nowhere are these processes more important than in the Arctic where warming water and thawing permafrost can accelerate erosion. The material eroded from permafrost can contain toxic metals like mercury, as well as mud, carbon, nutrients and microbes that affect water quality. While some of this material makes its way to the ocean, much of it is used by the river to build new land in the form of bars and floodplains. The “Developing capacity for planning and adapting to riverbank erosion and its consequences in the Yukon River Basin” project team is investigating these erosion and material cycling processes and their impact on communities on the Yukon and Koyukuk Rivers.
This past summer the project team visited their three partner communities in Beaver, Huslia, and Alakanuk, which span the Yukon Flats to the Yukon Delta. They visited schools and held discussions with community members on adaptive planning strategies and capacity building related to forecasts for erosion and water quality. In addition, they collected hundreds of bank and water samples and installed monitoring equipment to measure erosion and the fluxes of sediment, carbon, mercury, and microbes. Always at the whim of Mother Nature and Wright Air flying service, they attempted and partially succeeded to be on the river at critical times for erosion—right after ice breakup and again before freeze up to capture the entire melt season. The project team is indebted to community citizen scientists who helped fill the sampling gap through the summer. The new year will bring ample sample processing and data crunching.
For more information about the project, visit the project website.
| |
Photo: The project team and guides in Huslia, Alaska. | |
Article and photo submitted by Michael Lamb. | |
|
Communicating science to policy: Writing policy briefs on why your science matters
- Session 1: January 18, 2024 | 11am-12:30pm MT
- Session 2: February 15, 2024 | 2-3:30pm MT
Science Storytelling Series - Creating Virtual Tours with Infiniscope
- January 25, 2024 | 10am AKT / 12pm MT / 2pm ET
Indigenous Evaluation Workshops: Honoring Reconciliation in Evaluation
- Part 1: February 2, 2024 | 11:00-14:30 MT (3.5h)
- Part 2: February 9, 2024 | 11:00-14:30 MT (3.5h)
2024 NNA Annual Community Meeting
| |
Copyright © 2021 CIRES, All rights reserved.
The Navigating the New Arctic Community Office (NNA-CO) is jointly implemented by the University of Colorado Boulder, Alaska Pacific University, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The NNA-CO is supported through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation (Award #2040729).
| | | | |
