NA - Coop. between the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, and the International Arctic Research Center, University of Fairbanks

The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) in Bergen, and the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska USA will strengthen the research cooperation between them in order to establish the critical mass and exp ertise necessary to enhance our understanding of the processes and feedbacks governing the climate of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions so as to reduce the uncertainty of climate change projections. While sharing common scientific interest, BCCR and IARC also complement each other in that BCCR has its expertise on the oceanic component of the climate system while IARC´s expertise resides in the atmospheric component. The synergy created by these two factors, common interests and research complementarity, and by gathering a critical mass to pursue a common and ambitious goal in climate research has the potential to produce cutting-edge research. IARC and BCCR will organise workshops to prepare four proposals for joint research projects targeted to NORKLIMA ´s call for proposals in 2006 and funding agencies in the USA