2012 Annual Meeting and Council Forum

Overview

Annual Meeting

The 2012 ARCUS Annual Meeting took place on Wednesday, 2 May 2012 at the Pew Charitable Trusts Conference Center in Washington, D.C. The Annual Meeting gathered ARCUS member institution representatives, board members, and staff for an update on ARCUS programs and activities.

The meeting was also available online via Collaborate, a virtual meeting platform, for those unable to attend in person.

Arctic Forum

The Annual Meeting was held in conjunction with the 2012 Arctic Forum, held Tuesday, 1 May 2012 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The Arctic Forum was coordinated as part of a larger Science Policy Conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), aimed at natural and social scientists and decision makers. The Forum focused on science that helps inform stakeholders' decision-making processes. Assessing gaps and priority needs for arctic scientific information, the Forum addressed three themes:

• Governance and Security in the Arctic
• Energy Development in the Arctic
• Changing Arctic Ecosystems

The Forum examined the state of decision-maker and public understanding of the issues, with a goal of fostering an increased capacity for dialogue on arctic science policy issues.

AGU published a report entitled "Science Policy Conference: Summary of key policy-relevant Earth and space science." It summarizes content from the conference, and a section on the Arctic Forum includes highlights from each of its three sessions. The report can be downloaded here.