1. Lasse H. Pettersson, ARCONOR project coordinator
Arctic cooperation between Norway, Russia, India, China and US in satellite Earth observation and Education (ARCONOR)
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC)
an independent research foundation in Bergen, Norway
established in 1986 –
a national Norwegian environmental and climate research institute
Lasse H. Pettersson, ARCONOR project coordinator

2. Agenda: Wednesday 11. October @ 11:00 to 15:00 and Saturday 14
Agenda: Wednesday :00 to 15:00 and Saturday :00 to 12:00
Welcome – Leonid Bobylev
Overview of ARCONOR objectives, activities and plans – Lasse Pettersson
State of the art curriculum in education of polar scientist at (<30 minutes each):
St. Petersburg State University – by XX, SPbSU
In Russia including at AARI – Elena Shalina, NIERSC
In India – Ajith Joseph, NERCI
In US /UConn – Scott Stephenson (contribution in writing)
Recruitment of three ARCONOR Nansen Fellowship PhD candidates – Ola M. Johannessen, Leonid Bobylev and Ajith Joseph
Future project plans and activities – Lasse H. Pettersson, Leonid Bobylev and Ajith Joseph, Ola M.Johannessen
Summer schools; locations, topic, teachers, time, participation
Russia in 2018
India in 2018
Norway in 2019
China ?
Workshops
Development of an integrated curriculum
Dissemination and Outreach
Next meetings – Lasse H. Pettersson
Summary remarks – Lasse H. Pettersson

3. Goal:
INTPART will fund partnerships between Norwegian higher education and research institutions and excellent partners in prioritized counties. Special emphasis is on integrating higher education- and research, and may include business partners.
Organized by;
Norwegian Centre for International University Studies - SIU
Research Council of Norway - NFR.
Funding;
Expenses and mobility costs – NOT much on salary (SIU-rules < 20%)

4. INTPART: Arctic cooperation between Norway, Russia, India, China and US in satellite Earth observation and Education (ARCONOR) - research and higher education related to sea ice, environment, climate change, and operational conditions in the Arctic Ocean focusing on the Northern Sea Route
To sustain long-term international partnership and cooperation between Norway, Russia, India, China and US through advancing research, higher education and recruitment within satellite Earth observations for monitoring and forecasting of the Arctic and support to Arctic shipping.
Building on research conducted in RCN projects:
SONARC - Development of sea ice monitoring and forecasting system to support safe operations and navigation in Arctic seas
IceMotion – High resolution sea-ice motion from Synthetic Aperture Radar using pattern tracking and Doppler shift
Specific Objectives
To organize exchange visits, including guest lectures, for scientists, students and institution leadership among the partners.
To develop, implement and host summer schools and scientific workshops including the project partners and external participation.
Developing and validate an interdisciplinary curriculum related to shipping in the Arctic, with focus on the Northern Sea Route.
Coordinate, plan and submit future research project proposals within and beyond ARCONOR participation.

5. Background
ARCONOR is directly linked to the research objectives conducted in two on-going projects funded by Research Council of Norway:
Development of sea ice monitoring and forecasting system to support safe operations and navigation in Arctic seas (SONARC) – NORRUSS program contract # ( )
IceMotion – High resolution sea-ice motion from Synthetic Aperture Radar using pattern tracking and Doppler shift – ROMFORSK program contract # ( )
building on European Commission FP7 cooperation in
EuRuCAS (European-Russian Centre for cooperation in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic environmental and climate research
IndoMareclim (Indo-European research Facilities for studies on Marine Ecosystem and climate in India)

6. Project partners and Key staff involved
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen and Longyearbyen, Norway: Lasse H. Pettersson (project manager), prof. Stein Sandven also professor @ UNIS, prof. Yongqi Gao and Stefan Muckenhuber
Nansen Scientific Society, Bergen, Norway: Prof. Ola M. Johannessen,
Nansen International Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, St. Petersburg, Russia: Drs. Leonid Bobylev, Vladimir Volkov and Dmitry Kovalevsky.
Nansen Environmental Research Centre (India), Cochin, India: Drs. Ajith K. Joseph, Prof. N.R. Menon, P.V. Joseph, Bindu G. & Nandini Menon.
Nansen-Zhu International Research Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China: Dr. Jianqi Sun
Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA: Dr. Scott Stephenson

7. ARCONOR Workpackages
WP1: Mobility and exchange visits for students and staff.
WP2: Plan and implement summer schools and workshops.
WP3: Develop and validate Curriculum for a multidisciplinary university course entitled “Shipping in the Arctic”
WP4: Sustainability of the ARCONOR cooperation beyond the project period.
WP5: Management and Dissemination of results.

8. WP1: Mobility and exchange visits for students and staff.
Leader: Ola M. Johannessen, NANSI
Specific Objective: To organize exchanges visits, including guest lectures, for scientists, students and institution leadership among the partners.
Tasks:
Task 1-1: Select among existing or appoint new Nansen Fellowship students and research scientists within participant institutions (also external to the core team) relevant to contribute to ARCONOR cooperation. Identify new common research topics contributing to develop the curriculum in Shipping in the Arctic.
Task 1-2: Plan, schedule and implement exchange visits among the partner institutions in order to contribute to develop the research and educational cooperation. Capitalize on the existing experience at the partner institutions and their developed infrastructures through eg. FP7 EuRUCAS and IndoMareclim.
Task 1-3: Make and implement an exchange program for guest lectures and contributions to training among the partners.
Deliverables:
D1-1: Plan for exchange visits among the ARCONOR partners.
D1-2: Annual reports from the exchange visits, guest lectures and their contributions to develop the curriculum Shipping in the Arctic.

9. WP2: Plan and implement summer schools and workshops
Leader: Lasse H. Pettersson, NERSC
Specific Objective: To develop, implement and host scientific workshops and summer schools, including participation from the project partners and externally.
Task 2-1: Select research and educational topics for 1-2 thematic workshops to be organized each of the three years of the project. In addition to ARCONOR internal expertise external to the project participants should be identified and selected to participate in the workshops. The partners will use their national network of reference, see e.g. letter from Chinese PRIC (letter of cooperation), Indian National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) and Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI).
Task 2-2: Plan, implement and report each of the scheduled thematic workshops – to be hosted at either of the partner institutions and accordingly involve external “national” scientists and stakeholders from the respective countries.
Task 2-3: Plan, implement and host research summer schools on selected and multi-disciplinary topics related to Shipping in the Arctic. The 1st research school hosted in Russia by NIERSC and the 2nd in Norway by NERSC. Students will report and publish results form their interactive work at the research school. New topics and results may be incorporated in university curriculum on Shipping in the Arctic- to be implemented at UNIS and possible at other Universities affiliated with the ARCONOR partners (e.g. St. Petersburg State University).
Deliverables: D2-1: Workshop plan and schedule (for each year).
D2-2: Workshop report with recommendations (for each workshop)
D2-2: Student summary reports and publication from the research schools.

10. WP3: Develop and validate Curriculum for a multidisciplinary university course entitled “Shipping in the Arctic”
Leader: Stein Sandven, NERSC/UNIS and Lasse H. Pettersson, NERSC
Specific Objective: Plan and establish a joint curriculum for a university course on the topic “Shipping in the Arctic”
Task 3-1 Prepare a joint curriculum: The joint curriculum will be interdisciplinary, providing lectures on climate, sea ice, weather, environment, navigation, technology, infrastructure, economy, regulations, and geopolitics related to shipping in the Arctic. All the partner countries have strong interests in the Arctic and development of a curriculum in Arctic subjects is therefore of high interest among the partners. The curriculum will address how the human factors combined with the natural environment have impact on shipping activities. The different actors involved in the specialized fields and how they interact with each other will be presented. The lectures will give an historic summary, a present state-of-the-art and future perspectives of Arctic shipping. The curriculum will provide knowledge of the factors that determine how shipping is expected to evolve in shorter and longer perspectives. The curriculum shall give the students an interdisciplinary view of the issues related to shipping in the Arctic where sea transportation is expected to grow in the future. The reduction of the Arctic sea ice gives new opportunities for exploitation of energy and other resources as well as opening up of new sea transport routes between Europe, Asia and North America. These are factors that will stimulate increased ship traffic in the Arctic. On the other hand, the presence of sea ice, darkness, limitations of bathymetric charts, infrastructure and communication services put severe constraints on how ships can operate. Furthermore, shipping is also constrained by regulations, environmental risks, economic risks and geopolitical situations. The curriculum will be developed in year 1.
Task 3-2. Implementation of the curriculum: The first implementation of the course will take place at UNIS in Svalbard in the autumn of (year 1). UNIS is a leading university centre specializing on education of students in Arctic disciplines. UNIS admits from 50 – 80 new bachelor and master students each semester who will be able to attend the course. Students from the partner countries will be invited to attend the course at UNIS. The partner institutions will contribute by giving lectures. In 2018 – 2019 (year 2 – 3), the partners will start to implement the curriculum in educational institutions in their respective countries as well as parts of the research summer schools planned in ARCONOR.
Deliverables: D3-1: Joint curriculum for the course Shipping in the Arctic (month 9)
D-3-2 to 4: Report on course implementation (month 12, 24 and 36)

11. WP4: Sustainability of the ARCONOR cooperation beyond the project period
Leader: Leonid P. Bobylev, NIERSC
Specific Objective: Coordinate, plan and submit future research project proposals within and beyond ARCONOR participation.
Tasks:
Task 4-1: Identify relevant and complementary research and educational projects (programs) in order to expand the cooperation beyond the ARCNOR partners.
Task 4-2: Identify research gaps related to Shipping in the Arctic and possible sources and open calls relevant for funding of research and educational projects strengthening the cooperation and expertise.
Task 4-3: Develop and submit competitive research proposals to relevant calls and funding agencies.
Task 4-4: Take a world-leading role in research and education related to Shipping in the Arctic.
Deliverables:
D4-1: Competitive research and educational project proposals (tentative 2-3) related to Shipping in the Arctic and other relevant research topics.

12. WP5: Management and Dissemination of results.
Leader: Lasse H. Pettersson, NERSC
Specific Objective: To maintain high quality project management in order to achieve the expected scientific and educational goals. Disseminate information about results and project activities.
Task 5-1: Make and follow up annual plans for ARCONOR partner activities.
Task 5-2: Establish a consortium agreement between the partners.
Task 5-3: Generate annual reports.
Task 5-4: Establish a ARCONOR dedicated project website promoting results of and information products from the project.
Task 5-5: Promote the results of ARCONOR through participation in suggested and other relevant scientific Arctic conferences, including those hosted by and at the Arctic Council and its thematic-groups.
Task 5-6: Complete a multi-disciplinary publication manuscript summarizing the results of and way forward after ARCONOR.
Deliverables: D-5-1: Detailed annual project plans, including consortium agreement (1. Year).
D-5-1: Annual project reports.
D-5-1: Project web site and other dissemination material.
D-5-2: Conference presentations and abstracts.
D-5-3: Submitted manuscript for a joint synthesis paper of the ARCONOR outcome.
D-5-4: Plan for a sustainable cooperation beyond ARCONOR.

13. INTPART-ARCONOR will
Organize exchange visits, for scientists, students and institution leadership.
Host summer schools and scientific workshops.
Develop an interdisciplinary curriculum related to shipping in the Arctic
Future research project proposals and cooperation.