PredictFest: To Build Capacity for Arctic Stakeholders in Need of Multi-Scale Predictions

Our project focuses on developing an innovative approach to research capacity building at an event called PredictFest. Participating teams will leverage emergent sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) platforms and science to identify research programs which will support Arctic community planning and decision-making needs. Rapid climate change presents new implications in the arenas of planning, logistics, health, safety, community resilience and natural hazards assessment. Arctic residents, planners, policy and decision makers need information which will allow them to pragmatically address the challenges they will be facing in the future. PredictFest aims to advance collaborative research and identify applications which address the emerging challenges facing natural, built, and social systems in Arctic regions. Similar to a Hackathon, Research Derby, or Prediction Rodeo, PredictFest will bring Arctic community members, scientists, programmers, and social analysts together for the purpose of clearly identifying research needs and building the relationships and research capacity needed to support integrative research in the Arctic. In preparation for the event which will occur in February 2022, we will outline our organization process to date which includes topic prioritization, stakeholder and researcher engagement, data preparation, ethics framework and event evaluation. This will lay the foundation for active participant engagement. At PredictFest, teams will work over 2-days to prepare research pitches. These will articulate planning and decision-making needs, identify technical and modelling approaches, identify relevant connections to affected systems (e.g., natural, built, social), and set out a plan for continued development which builds on an equitable and collaborative foundation. Our goal is to support ideation that fosters relationship-building at the planning stage of project development.