Greenland-Canadian partnership is now underway Published 14.01.2011

This week, the Greenland Climate Research Centre in Nuuk was visited by the management of a Canadian research centre at the University of Manitoba to make plans for the future integration of activities in Nuuk and Winnipeg. The idea is to establish a tight collaboration between the two centres on a long-term and extensive research effort focusing primarily on the Baffin Bay area, but actually stretching across Canada and Greenland – a huge land and sea area.

Participants from the University of Manitoba were Professor Norman Halden, Dean of the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, Professor Dave Barber, Head of the Center for Earth and Observation Science (CEOS) and David Mosscrop, Operations Manager at CEOS. In their separate fields, these three gentlemen have produced a large amount of impressive results during the last 20-25 years, in which Canada has invested heavily and continuously in the exploration of the Arctic.

The aim of the meeting in Nuuk was to discuss the overall framework and practical details for the future partnership and to enable the Canadian executives and employees at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the Climate Research Centre in Nuuk to meet each other and tell each other about their respective fields of work.

The expectations for the future partnership are positive on both sides, not least due to the fact that the expertise and experience of the two centres appear to complement each other well in a number of areas. The idea is to have researchers and other employees move freely between the two centres. It was decided to provide mutual assistance regarding expensive scientific equipment and logistics in order to utilize resources in an efficient manner. Obviously, there are a number of administrative and practical challenges to be solved for the joint research effort to operate smoothly, including the fact that there are still no direct flights between Greenland and North America. You still have to go via Iceland or Denmark.

Next month, the two management groups will meet again in Winnipeg to continue the planning process and ensure that the cooperation between the two centres can become fully operational in the course of the next year or so.

From left: Dave Barber, Norman Halden and Søren Rysgaard. Photo: Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen.