Organizing Research and Fieldwork at Summit Station and in Greenland

In 1999 the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Research Support and Logistics (RSL) program funded the formation of a Science Coordination Office (SCO) for Summit Station, Greenland to provide guidance on operations, planning, and management for the field station and to facilitate cooperation amongst the diverse researchers using the facility. Since 2016, the SCO has also assisted in planning support for projects throughout central Greenland, particularly those making over-snow traverses. The SCO provides an important, independent voice for the scientific community. This group provides valuable input regarding community needs and concerns during planning for the management of the facility, while relaying information back out to the researchers from the NSF and logistics contractors. The SCO strives to develop a true community of users through open communication and by encouraging shared use of resources and key data sets. The SCO also endeavors to focus the research community on the transformative questions and encourages the community to synthesize available data to identify innovative approaches to address knowledge gaps. This presentation will describe the SCO, present examples of transformative research in Greenland, and potential future research plans for Greenland.

Photo: Summit Station's Big House, Credit: Jay Kyne