Report on Scientific Cooperation within the Arctic: Understanding the Bottlenecks in Cross-Border Research

In May of 2017, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs for each of the eight Arctic states (Canada, Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, USA) signed the “Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation”. The goal of the Agreement is to increase cooperation and access among the Arctic countries, by providing better access to infrastructures, research areas, facilities and data. The overall prediction of the Agreement is that increased scientific cooperation in the Arctic will lead to greater development of scientific knowledge across the region. This report outlines the results from a survey conducted by University of the Arctic, in cooperation with IASC and IASSA, in the spring of 2019. The survey focused on understanding bottlenecks and positive practices in scientific cooperation and access across the Arctic. While some issues were presented, the results were overwhelmingly positive, with only 8% of 136 respondents having been denied access. These respondents mostly cited issues accessing data from other countries. There were also 64 cited accounts of positive cooperation from respondents. These encompassed a variety of experiences primarily research cooperation and educational activities based on the existing partnership and collaboration. The nationality of the respondents is diverse, with representation from all eight Arctic states and from a variety of non-Arctic states.