Arctic exploration grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $9m grant over three years to fund the University of Alaska’s plans to expand its capacity to research the Arctic.

The grant will be used for the third stage of Alaska’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The money will be used by Alaska to hire scientists, support university research, fund business research development and develop K-12 education and public outreach programs throughout Alaska.

Alaska is conducting a project called Resilience and Vulnerability in a Rapidly Changing North: The Integration of Physical, Biological and Social Processes’ that will survey the ecological and social systems of the Artic.

‘We will be addressing one of the most critical issues in the North—socio-economic sustainability—and we will be doing so by inviting researchers from all different fields to the table,’ said Peter Schweitzer, Alaska EPSCoR director.