Magnus Friberg (Swedish Research Council (VR) and IASC Council member) recently represented IASC at the 32nd Working Group meeting of Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) in Kiruna/Giron, Sweden, 25-27 September 2018.
IASC and AMAP work at opposite ends of scientific endeavor. They are complementary. Whereas the primary task for IASC is to bring scientist together to discuss, plan and initiate new research, AMAP brings them together to compile the outcome of research and to bring the scientific results to stakeholders and decision makers. Both organizations do well with their tasks. Though the tasks are different, there is still much room for collaboration and, luckily, both organizations see much benefit in continued and possibly widened collaboration. For example...
- There is a need to continue IASC's support to bring independent experts from its network as reviewers of AMAP reports.
- SAON (Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks) is important for both AMAP and IASC: for AMAP, to bring better coordination of data and observations of the Arctic environment, and for IASC, to support the same for research projects.
- Due to a focus on particular topics, there is currently a lack of State-of-the-Arctic type reports being produced for stakeholders and decisionmakers.
- Future cooperation between IASC, AMAP, and their respective subsidiaries could include meteorologcial cooperation, joint fellowship opportunities for early career researchers, and joint representation.
If you are interested in representing IASC at an upcoming Arctic meeting, please contact the IASC Secretariat.