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FORSTERK-Forsterkningsmidler

CAPARDUS Extension in Norway

Alternative title: CAPARDUS Utvidelse i Norge

Awarded: NOK 0.80 mill.

The CAPARDUS project had focus on documentation and building knowledge on standardization development within topics of importance in Arctic regions. The topics were related to resource exploitation and other economic activities, environmental protection and research activities. People living or working in Svalbard and other Arctic regions operate according to formal and informal standards such as ethics, norms, agreements, guidelines, good practice, international conventions, and national legislation. These are commonly denoted as the “standardisation continuum” and they emerge as human activities increase and regulations are implemented by authorities. The project facilitated for collaboration between natural and social science disciplines, including use of community-based observations and citizen science. The main activities have been to organize workshops, dialogue meetings and other events and to prepare a report on the development of standards, guidelines and practices within the selected topics. The outcome is new knowledge about the standardization development and improved collaboration between researchers and local community actors. This will help to further develop guidelines and good practices within tourist business, shipping activities, and safety regulations. A closer dialogue between research projects, including both natural and social science as well as the local actors will help the scientists to deliver useful results from research projects, and the local community will see more benefits from the research. The project has explored the requirements for an Arctic Practice System (APS), which is envisaged to be a repository of documents and other digital objects. The goal of the APS is become a tool for knowledge production between scientists, local communities and other stakeholder groups. In the long term better collaboration between natural and social science projects will help in planning and developing a sustainable Svalbard community.

The main outcome is new knowledge about the standardization development within topics of importance in the Arctic. The outcome will contribute to improved collaboration between scientific disciplines to support sustainable development of the Svalbard community. The results will lead to better understanding of how practices, guidelines and standards evolve in different sectors, both as a top-down and a bottom-up process. This will help in building guidelines and good practices in the tourist business, shipping activities, safety regulations, and in collaboration between scientific disciplines. A closer dialogue between research projects, including both natural and social science, and the local community will help the scientists to deliver useful results from research projects, and the local community will see more benefits from the research. In long term better collaboration between natural and social science projects will help in adaptation of the Svalbard community to climate change and new economic circumstances. In this process a digital Arctic Practice System can be a useful tool to share knowledge through efficient access to relevant data, documents and other information.

The CAPARDUS Extension project will establish a network in Svalbard which will be active in development of standards, guidelines and practices for environmental protection, economic development, community planning and other activities. The growing human presence in the Arctic requires regulations, guidelines, etc. which need to be adapted to local conditions. At present there is no framework for integrating ongoing work on standardization between scientists, local communities, commercial operators and governance bodies. People living and working in the Arctic need to operate according to ethics, norms, guidelines, etc. These are elements of the standardisation continuum, which need to be identified and understood in the various Arctic regions. The CAPARDUS Extension project will focus on the situation in Svalbard, where the project will organize workshops, research schools and other events to disseminate the project results. A wider group of researchers, governmental agencies and industries will be invited to participate in the events. The project will thereby establish collaboration with other research projects in Svalbard dealing with tourism, shipping, cultural heritage research and community planning. The project will focus on interdisciplinary collaboration between natural and social science disciplines, including use of CBM and Citizen Science, which helps to make research results directly useful for the Svalbard society. Furthermore, the project will identify requirements for an Arctic Practice System (APS), which will be a repository of documents and other digital objects. The next step would be to design and implement a prototype APS to be a tool for co-production of knowledge between scientists, local communities and other stakeholder groups. In conclusion, the project will strengthen the network between existing and new scientific projects and the local community to ensure that the research conducted in Svalbard has societal impact.

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FORSTERK-Forsterkningsmidler

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