Deliverable No. 7.11 First summary report of stakeholder interaction activities

• Main Authors: Bojovic, Dragana, Terrado, Marta
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Norway; Tromsø; ArcticNet; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3569246; https://zenodo.org/record/3569246

The main objective of the APPLICATE project is to develop enhanced predictive capacity for weather and climate in the Arctic and beyond, and to determine the influence of Arctic climate change on the Northern Hemisphere. To produce usable and trustworthy predictive information for decision-making, APPLICATE actively engages with stakeholders, including representatives of various economic sectors and local communities. This deliverable describes the different stakeholder interaction activities that have been undertaken to date, including the meetings with the APPLICATE User Group, the interactions with stakeholders when attending relevant events and the participation in the blog Polar Prediction Matters (PPM). The User Group is composed of representatives from all the APPLICATE targeted stakeholder groups, including the scientific community and international organisations, the public and private sectors, and the society at large including the general public and local communities. The first and second User Group meetings were held with the main aim for the project WP7 partners and the participants to get to know each other, learn about the project and start a discussion about Arctic priority issues and sectors where enhanced predictive capacity is needed. The first virtual meeting in September 2017 was an introduction to the second face- to-face User Group meeting that took place in October during the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik. After that, User Group participants were invited to attend the APPLICATE General Assembly in January 2018 in Barcelona. The aim of this third meeting was to introduce the User Group to the APPLICATE partners and vice versa, and to give them the chance to follow project developments. In a specific round-table session devoted to the User Group meeting, participants mapped the most urgent issues and sectors affecting the Arctic. Other chances to interact with stakeholders were provided through attendance to relevant events about the Arctic. Beside the Arctic Circle Assembly, WP7 partners also attended the ArcticNet conference Arctic Change held in Québec (Canada) in December 2017 and the Arctic Frontiers conference in TromsØ (Norway) in January 2018. In addition, the participation of APPLICATE in the PPM blog, run by the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), also provides the project a unique chance to interact with other stakeholders. All the described stakeholder interaction activities are key to identify and gather information on knowledge gaps in the Arctic. This is important in order to define what are the user-relevant variables and metrics that the APPLICATE project should focus its efforts on. The complexity of the Arctic was one of the main outcomes of the user consultations. It is clear that the APPLICATE project cannot address all the topics discussed, but we can ensure that the information gathered is shared further and addressed by other Arctic projects and initiatives.