The Social and Human Working Group of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is sponsoring the participation of three early-career or traditional indigenous knowledge holders to a workshop at the 2017 Ninth International Congress on Arctic Social Sciences in Umeå, Sweden that explores new ways to define and respond to challenges and opportunities in global, regional, and local governance, as intersections between science, technology, and different societies in the Arctic increase.
Sum of each grant: 850€

Event and tasks:
The grant holders will participate in a cross-disciplinary and cross-stakeholder workshop titled, “Multidisciplinary communication and the governance of evolving global dynamics in the Arctic”. In this workshop they will share a personal experience or experiences in multi-disciplinary or multi-stakeholder communication about some specific aspect or part of the Arctic environment. Examples of the kinds of multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder encounters that we are hoping to cover include; talking about living in an Arctic community to audiences without such experience for purposes of influencing opinions and policies; participating in cross-disciplinary research projects, workshops, or summer schools; and working as a scientist or an expert in drafting policy. The presentations about these personal experiences will be used as bases for discussion about whether the notion of ‘boundary objects’ from science and technology studies could be useful in facilitating more meaningful multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder communication in global, regional, and local governance, as intersections between science, technology, and different societies in the Arctic increase*.

Eligibility: Applicants for the 850€ travel grants need to be either early career scientists (currently enrolled into a graduate program or graduated within the past 5 years) or traditional indigenous knowledge holders. They also need to be from one of the IASC member countries and not have received other IASC travel support in the last 18 months.

Applications: Applications consist of one document that includes a) a brief description of the
relevant multi-disciplinary or cross-stakeholder experience(s) the applicant wishes to discuss, b) a short motivational statement, and c) a curriculum vitae.

Complete applications and any questions about the workshop or the grants should be sent to
Justiina Dahl (Justiina.dahl@eui.eu) by December 14th 2016.

*The participants will be provided with a comprehensive explanation of the meaning of the notion of ‘boundary object’ along with a varied set examples of how it has been applied to the analysis and organization of multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder interactions previously before the workshop. A brief verbal and written summary will also be given at the time of the workshop.

Information about the workshop, eligibility, and applying is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7tJd-lrp8eUYThULVFHVTUyOHc/view

*** The general call for abstract submissions for the session (5.4. Multidisciplinary communication and the governance of evolving global dynamics in the Arctic - Exploring the usefulness of the theory and method of ‘boundary objects’ in Arctic social and political sciences) the workshop is part of is now also open. ***