Social Sciences

I'm Luke and I have recently started my PhD at Northumbria investigating efficient ways to map permafrost and ground ice with geophysical methods. I was honoured to be given the opportunity to attend two conferences: Canada Inuit Nunangat United Kingdom Arctic Research Program(CINUK) annual meeting and ArcticNet: Arctic Change 2024 in Ottawa, Canada in early December.

I was very thankful to be awarded a travel grant under the "Next Generation UK-Canada Arctic Science Engagement Scheme" funded through the NERC Arctic Office.  I attended with UKPN Committee members Louise, Jas and Dylan. For several years, CINUK has been devoted to advancing research in the Inuit Nunangat region with the National Inuit Strategy on Research (NISR) at its heart. It was fantastic to see the diversity in projects and their achievements of the past 3 years. Projects that stood out were Sikuttiaq (Changing ice conditions) , Nuna (Changing land conditions - which featured UKPN president Louise), NNSAR(Search and rescue) and BARIN (beavers and ecological research). These projects did a fantastic job implementing NISR collaborating with Inuit to reproduce cutting-edge research. Seeing collaboration with Inuit first hand really highlighted how research can have a positive impact on communities. It was great to get to know them further and discuss all things polar science and what this conference means for activities within UKPN. A highlight was having opportunities to  network, experience Inuit culture and hear speeches from keynote speakers such as the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) President Natan Obed and Governor general of Canada, Mary Simon. Getting keynote speakers stood out as potential idea for UKPN in the future.

I was also privileged to be able to attend ArcticNets ArcticChange Conference 2024 held the week after the CINUK meeting. The diversity of Arctic Research taking place here was incredible. I enjoyed seeing up to date research in my area of permafrost science and environmental geophysics. A key takeaway from this conference is that there is a clear need for community engagement in research and decision-making processes when addressing Indigenous concerns about permafrost thaw and subsidence. I look forward to investigating ways to adapt geophysical methods and analysis to monitor permafrost whilst prioritising Indigenous self-determination in research which will include supporting data sovereignty.