NNA Community Newsletter

May 2024 Issue

• 2025 NNA Annual Community Meeting Update
• Job Opening: Arctic Research & Community Engagement Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder
• Upcoming Webinar: The U.S. NSF PAPPG Tribal Nation approvals and Tribal Resources summary of changes overview and discussion
• Arctic Data Center 2024 Community Survey
• NNA Project Featured in Eos
• NNA Project Highlight - Capturing Indigenous Knowledge to Co-Design more Effective Operations, Maintenance and Management of Water Infrastructure
• Upcoming Events

Job Opening: Arctic Research & Community Engagement Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder welcomes applications for a full-time Arctic Research & Community Engagement Coordinator to provide coordination for advancing international Arctic research engagement and promoting safe working environments in remote field sites for researchers. The Arctic Research Engagement Coordinator will support various initiatives:



• As the engagement coordinator for U.S. participation in the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC).
• As an events and community-building coordinator for the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO).
• As a training facilitator and liaison to the field research team for the ADVANCEing FieldSafety (AFS) program.

The full job posting is listed here. The posting will close on June 5, 2024.

Upcoming Webinar: The U.S. NSF PAPPG Tribal Nation approvals and Tribal Resources summary of changes overview and discussion

May 30, 2024  |  11:00am-12:00pm AKT / 1:00-2:00pm MT / 3:00-4:00pm ET

The IARPC Participatory Research & Indigenous Leadership in Research (PILR) Collaboration Team will host a webinar titled The U.S. NSF PAPPG Tribal Nation approvals and Tribal Resources summary of changes overview and discussion on May 30, 2024. This IARPC PILR webinar will feature U.S. National Science Foundation’s Caroline Blanco (Assistant General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel) and Jean Feldman (Head, Policy Office, Division of Institution and Award Support, within the Foundation's Office of Budget, Finance, and Award Management). Caroline and Jean will provide an overview and discussion of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide Tribal Nation approvals and Tribal resources summary of changes to the PAPPG (NSF 24-1) Summary of Changes to the PAPPG (NSF 24-1) - Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 24-1) | NSF - National Science Foundation.



Learn more here.

Arctic Data Center 2024 Community Survey

Attention Arctic research community! The Arctic Data Center (ADC) is calling Arctic researchers to share their valuable feedback and insights to explore ways to enhance the repository to better meet the needs of the community. The ADC highly encourages those who have submitted data to the repository in the past, have attended one of their data science trainings, used our tools and/or services, and beyond to take this survey. It will take about 10-15 minutes to complete and all responses will remain anonymous. For more information, please visit the survey link and if you have any questions to please reach out via email to info@arcticdata.io. 

Take the survey here. Deadline to participate is June 28, 2024.

NNA Project Featured in Eos

Convergence Science in the Arctic



The Arctic is undergoing rapid changes that affect its natural environment, its people, and its role in global-scale natural processes. The interplay of climate change, industrialization, and other stressors makes the Arctic an intriguing subject for convergence science—an approach characterized by communication and integration across disciplines to address specifically defined problems.

The aim of convergence science is to generate new paradigms and ways of viewing problems that reach beyond any single discipline. Despite the rising popularity of this concept over the past decade, few publications have addressed the practical specifics of how to put it into practice—and none have focused on the Arctic.

Now, a new paper “A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic” by Ivanov et al. aims to do just that.

Read the full article in Eos here.

NNA Project Highlight

Capturing Indigenous Knowledge to Co-Design more Effective Operations, Maintenance and Management of Water Infrastructure

Since 2021, the multi-institutional team working on the Capturing Indigenous Knowledge to Co-Design more Effective Operations, Maintenance and Management of Water Infrastructure project has sought to address water sector operations and maintenance challenges through co-collaborative efforts with rural Alaska communities. To accomplish this, the team characterized existing water systems using multiple interdisciplinary approaches. For example, researchers mapped links between local knowledge and preferences with water delivery operations and then evaluated how national policies and water treatment requirements match local needs and guidance. 

The results of this work informed the co-creation of a Water Hauler Graphic Guide and Hauled User Guide to help address workforce challenges and household service interruptions. A complementary analysis of water quality tests and surveys for households in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta explained different water quality properties in participating households, as well as practices that might protect household water quality. The team also developed a set of Analytical Cookbooks and Services that can streamline the way data is collected in remote communities and safely shared to NSF Science Gateways.

This work has been possible through a co-design effort between researchers and community rightsholders. This included several design iterations with workforce members, annual community town halls, interviews and personalized communications with the community, and meetings with local and state government officials, practitioners, researchers, as well as Indigenous community members. The project team will be returning to work with their partnering communities during summer 2024. 



Along with several community resources, the project team has also disseminated their project results through conferences and manuscripts, which can be accessed by contacting Kasey Faust (PI) at faustk@utexas.edu.

Article and graphics submitted by Kasey Faust, project PI.

Upcoming Events

Communicating science via policy briefs: Sessions for co-working or learning

• June 11, 2024  |  12:00-1:00pm AKT / 2:00-3:00pm MT / 4:00-5:00pm ET