SAON News
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Foundation Board seeks a full-time Executive Secretary of the AMAP Secretariat. The AMAP Secretariat, established for more than 25 years, supports the work of the AMAP Working Group, one of six Working Groups of the Arctic Council. The position is to be located in Tromsø, Norway.
SIOS will enter its operational phase in late autumn this year. In this context SIOS is seeking an experienced, creative and executive person to lead the continued development of SIOS as the director.
The position is located at the Knowledge Centre in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
Deadline for application is 1 September 2017.
Apply online at https://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/139563/director-sios
One of the main themes at the 2016 Arctic Science Ministerial was Strengthening and Integrating Arctic Observations and Data Sharing. The ministers committed to the “shared development of a science-driven, integrated Arctic-observing system” and saw “a critical role for the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) initiative”.
As a response to this, the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) and SAON published the International Arctic Observations Assessment Framework, defining 12 Social Benefit Areas (SBAs) that rely on Arctic observations:
- Disaster Preparedness
- Environmental Quality
- Food Security
- Fundamental Understanding of Arctic Systems
- Human Health
- Infrastructure and Operations
- Marine and Coastal Ecosystems and Processes
- Natural Resources
- Resilient Communities
- Sociocultural Services
- Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems and Processes
- Weather and Climate
“The Arctic is a particularly important location to understand and conduct observations“, says the chair of SAON, Christine Daae Olseng: “This work can form the basis for prioritizing future observational efforts”
The Framework was developed in January 2017 as STPI and SAON co-hosted a workshop, convening experts from international, state, and local governments; industry; academia; and non-governmental organizations to review and revise a framework for assessing the societal benefits derived from Arctic observations. The methodology involved a review of international Arctic strategies for common objectives that rely on Earth observations. The resulting international Arctic Observations Assessment Framework will provide the foundation and justification for future international efforts to assess the value of Arctic observations and to structure a pan-Arctic observing system.
The EU-Canada-USA "Arctic Workshop" was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 29-30 March 2017. The workshop was organized by the Arctic Working Group of the EU-Canada-USA Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance, which was created in May 2013. The report is available, together with the keynote talks and the slides of the many workshop presenters, at https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/Arctic-Workshop2017.
Arctic observing and data sharing were one of the topics of the "Arctic Workshop". Thus, that part of the report is a direct contribution to the White House Arctic Science Ministerial theme of "Strengthening and Integrating Arctic Observations and Data Sharing".
The other workshop topic was "Strategies and Mechanisms to Facilitate International Arctic Science Cooperation". That too is a contribution to the White House Arctic Science Ministerial insofar as the overarching goal of the Ministerial was to enhance international Arctic science collaboration.
Comments or questions to the workshop and/or the report, contact Alain LeClair (), Andrea Tilche (), Attilio Gambardella () or Martin Jeffries ().
The Arctic 100 Expedition is an international expedition in Arctic waters on board a Finnish icebreaker: Invitation