The sail-off meeting of Nordic Center of Excellence Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH) took place at Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) during April 11. and 12. 2016. ARCPATH is funded by the Nordic Council and includes nine partners from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland in addition to Canadian, Chinese, Russian and US partners. Representatives from partner institutions discussed the coordinated implementation plan for ARCPATH during two days in Bergen.

ARCPATH is coordinated by Prof. Yongqi Gao from the Nansen Center and co-led by Dr Astrid Elisabeth Ogilvie from Stefansson Arctic Institute (SAI), Iceland. The ARCPATH project will focus on climatic changes that will happen in the near future, with the overarching goal of fostering responsible and sustainable development. As well as considering specific aspects of climate and sea-ice changes, the project will focus on socio-economic changes in specific coastal communities in Iceland, Greenland and northern Norway. ARCPATH will take into account both natural and social science perspectives, with expertise drawn from the fields of: climatology; environmental studies; marine and fisheries biology; fisheries management; anthropology; governance systems; and human ecology.

Picture: ARCPATH includes Prof Leslie King from Royal Roads University, Dr Astrid Elisabeth Ogilvie, Dr Níels Einarsson from SAI, Dr Shuting Yang, Dr Bo Christiansen, Prof Noel Keenlyside from University of Bergen, Dr Mihaela Caian, Dr Per Pemberton from Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute, Dr Marianne H. Rasmussen, Prof. Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir from University of Iceland and Prof. Yongqi Gao, Dr Francois Counillon and Dr Torill Hamre from NERSC.