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SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Svalbard in local and global perspective: an interdisciplinary science workshop organised by the Svalbard Social Science Initiative

Awarded: NOK 0.25 mill.

The aim of the project is to develop innovative collaboration between Svalbard-related social science, natural science and the local community in Longyearbyen. The main activity is to plan and organize a 3-day workshop with participation from the Svalbard Social Science Initiative (SSSI), Oslo School of Architecture and design (AHO), invited experts and the local community in Longyearbyen. The workshop will develop new collaboration across scientific disciplines which is important for planning the future of Svalbard community, and thereby contribute to the SSF’s strategic objectives. The workshop is a follow-up of the first workshop organized by the SSSI on 4 November 2019 as part of the Svalbard Science Conference 2019. The report from the first workshop is available at https://www.svalbardsocialscience.com/. The topics of the next workshop will include social science, climate science and collaboration with architects, community planners, companies and governance bodies dealing with the development of the Svalbard community. The workshop will discuss questions of how researchers and community services can respond to Longyearbyen’s rapidly changing needs. The workshop will exploit the potential of multidisciplinary researchers work together with different theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The sharing and collaborative interpretation of already collected data within the SSSI group, including the verification/falsification of developed hypotheses and findings will hence constitute an important part of the workshop. The workshop will be accompanied by public outreach activities and planning new projects in collaboration with local actors. Participants in the workshop will come from Norway and some European countries, and more than two thirds are early career scientists from various research fields. The workshop will also facilitate development of joint publications and collaborative projects. The workshop is planned for autumn 2021. A project report with results of the workshop will be published in spring 2022.

Funding scheme:

SSF-Svalbard Science Forum