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Uddannelses- og Forskningsudvalget 2015-16
UFU Alm.del
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Evaluation of the Greenland Climate Research Centre

Committee

Dr. Paul Falkowski (Chair), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.

Dr. Nicholas Owens, Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, Plymouth,

Dr. Tim Lenton, Exeter University, UK

Dr. Michael Bravo, University of Cambridge, UK

Secretary

Sherrie Forrest, National Research Council, U.S.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Program Overview

Recommendations

Appendices

Appendix A - Committee Biographies

Appendix B - GCRC Interview Agenda

Appendix C – Terms of Reference

Page 3

Page 7

Page 11

Page 16

Page 19

Page 22

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INTRODUCTION

This report reflects the results of an external review of the Greenland Climate Research

Centre by a committee of experts appointed by the Danish Agency for Science,

Technology, and Innovation (DASTI) and the Commission for Scientific Research in

Greenland (KVUG). As directed, the committee evaluated the quality of GCRC

research programs and other activities with reference to the scientific, societal and

organizational goals defined for the Centre within four priority areas: nature and

environment; society and commerce; technology and infrastructure; and the interaction

between the three sectors. After careful consideration, the committee elected to provide

a set of recommendations, both as a Greenlandic/Danish institution and as a critical

global resource for understanding climate change and its consequences in the coming

decades. The committee provides four high level recommendations, which include a

resident Director, a clear vision, greater outreach, and more focused use of resources.

In addition, the committee provides several other recommendations, all of which it

believes are critical to the GCRC’s long-term success as a leading climate research

center.

Charge to the Committee

The Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC), was established in 2009 by the

Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland (KVUG), the Greenland Institute of

Natural Resources (GINR) and the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik) as a

Centre for research on the expected impacts of climate change on Arctic marine, limnic

and terrestrial environments, and on Greenlandic society. In 2012, DASTI and KVUG

requested an external review of the GCRC. Accordingly, a panel of internationally

recognized experts in interdisciplinary climate research was appointed to conduct the

evaluation and prepare a report by the end of the Centre’s fourth year (1 May 2013).

This committee was charged with that task. The purpose of the evaluation is to rate the

quality of GCRC activities and preliminary results within the Centre's four priority

areas:

Nature and environment

Society and commerce

Technology and infrastructure

Interaction between the three sectors

Introductory materials adapted from the Terms of Reference (Appendix C) and GCRC Overview

provided to the committee by the Danish Agency Science, Technology and Innovation.

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As directed, the committee evaluated the quality of GCRC activities and results with

reference to the scientific, societal and organizational goals defined for the Centre.

Background of the GCRC

The GCRC consists of a broad network of researchers, support staff and graduate

students located primarily in Greenland, Denmark and Canada. The network structure is

flexible and in 2012 the GCRC had approximately 80 researchers attached to 24 different

projects organized within ten research units focused on areas that include ocean and fjord

systems; sea ice; ice sheets and glaciers; terrestrial, marine and limnic ecosystems;

weather and climate and societal implications. Figure 1 shows the research funding

allocations from 2010 and 2011. In February 2012, a new program began, ‘Climate and

Society’, which addresses climate change issues at the intersection of social science,

climate science and public policy that are relevant to Greenlandic society, and to society

more broadly. The overwhelming majority of researchers is not resident in Greenland, but

resides outside the country and is affiliated with Danish universities and governmental

institutions. Indeed, in 2012 the personnel residing in Greenland consisted of seven

researchers, including three Ph.D. students.

The GCRC was established by a funding allocation under the Danish National

Budget. Funds are administered by DASTI and allocated by KVUG; DKK 73.8m was

allocated to run the Centre for a five-year period ending 1 May 2014. KVUG issued an

initial letter of grant, followed by seven others that were divided into four categories:

Climate research - DKK 38.8 M.

Climate Centre operations - DKK 20.0 M

Climate Centre management - DKK 5.0 M

Social Science professorship - DKK 10.0 M

The funding process for individual projects is similar to that of a traditional funding

agency in that GCRC solicits proposals from the scientific community and awards grants

based on a competitive, peer reviewed process. The first request for proposals in 2009

resulted in 36 applications that totaled DKK 54.0 M. In 2010, two calls for proposals

followed, resulting in 19 applications totaling DKK 15.9 M and 24 applications totaling

DKK 18.0 M. Following the solicitation period, the Director and GCRC leadership

prioritize the submissions and assemble a summary for review by an outside scientific

panel. A scientific jury committee appointed by KVUG, composed of Professor Minik

Rosing, Professor Bo Thamdrup and Director Klaus Nygaard, assess and prioritize the

applications within the overall funding limit; all decisions should be based on scientific

merit. During renewal phases, the Director has a critical role in deciding which funded

projects will be renewed at the completion of a funding cycle. During the initial proposal

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cycle in 2009, 9 projects were funded; in 2010 the original 9 projects plus 3 new projects

were continued/funded; and in 2011, 11 of the 12 existing projects plus an additional 4

projects were continued/funded; one project that was previously funded was not renewed.

GCRC Project

Oceanography (GCRC 6501)

Land Eco-systems (GCRC 6502)

Socio-economics (GCRC 6503)

Climate Models (GCRC 6504)

Plankton Dynamics (GCRC 6505)

Atlantic Cod (GCRC 6506)

Marine Carbon Cycle (GCRC 6507)

Satellite Observations (GCRC 6508)

Coastal Glaciers (GCRC 6509)

Whales (GCRC 6510)

Optics (GCRC 6511)

Drifting Buoys (GCRC 6512)

Intertidal Ecology (GCRC 6513)

Small Copepods (GCRC 6514)

Mooring Network (GCRC 6515)

Winter Moorings (GCRC 6516)

TOTAL

2010

2011

108

Figure 1

: Research projects funded by GCRC, and number of employees in each of the

research units. Empty cells are where projects started after 2010 / 2011.

Review Criteria and Information Collection Process

The committee evaluated research and other activities of the Centre based on criteria

that were provided as part of the original statement of work. The criteria stated that the

Centre should be evaluated in reference to the goals of achieving a high standard of

scientific merit, as well as societal and organizational goals, including:

Make a high-profile, expert contribution focusing on the impacts of climate

change in the Arctic,

Continuously coordinate activities with other research programs,

Conduct application-oriented and innovative research,

Make significant contributions to assessment of the influence of climate change

on the Arctic marine, limnic and terrestrial environments and on Greenlandic

society, including its economy, commerce and technology, and

Achieve capacity building and a permanent base of support in Greenland.

Adapted from GCRC Self-Evaluation Report, November 2012, pgs. 11-12.

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Data and other information were collected through three primary sources:

Self-evaluation reports

– Leadership, principle investigator’s (PI’s) representing

the ten research units and Ph.D. students provided written reports detailing the

strengths and weaknesses of the overall Centre, and analysis of the individual

research activities and results achieved within the time since the program(s) was

initiated. The KVUG Secretariat drafted preliminary questions; the committee

reviewed, edited and provided additional questions to guide preparation of the

reports.

Interviews

– The committee conducted in person and remote interviews with the

leadership of GCRC, individual PI’s of the core research projects, Ph.D.

students and other GCRC staff. The interviews provided the committee the

opportunity to ask questions to clarify and supplement information that was

provided through the self-evaluation reports.

3. Existing documentation

– The committee reviewed supporting documents on the

framework of the GCRC, such as the letter of allocation, funding descriptions,

the organization chart, ‘vision, mission, goals and strategies’ and collaboration

agreements. In addition, the committee reviewed scientific reports and

publication lists that resulted from individual projects.

This report responds to the charge to the committee to evaluate the activities of the

GCRC since its inception in 2009. As indicated above, the committee drew from reports

and other materials that were submitted by GCRC leadership and research groups, and

conducted face-to-face interviews to complete its investigations. The report is composed

of two main sections; the following section provides an overview of the panel’s

understanding of the GCRC program, including the committees’ assessment of the

Centre’s strengths and weaknesses; the subsequent section is composed of the

committee’s recommendations to the Centre leadership. Four key recommendations are

highlighted, followed by additional recommendations.

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The physical location of Greenland in the Earth system makes this region one of the most

critical and sensitive to changes in climate and its attendant effects on ecology and

subarctic society on the planet. Greenland’s ice sheet is highly sensitive to climate

warming and is currently losing mass, contributing significantly to global sea level rise.

The sea-ice surrounding Greenland is experiencing abrupt change, and deep water

formation in the surrounding seas is known to have switched on and off in recent

decades. Archives of past climate change in coastal western Greenland show abrupt shifts

that are correlated with past societal changes. Greenland’s ecosystems are subject to

accelerating climate change in the face of multiple drivers. Attempts to understand

ecosystem response – including the potential for abrupt change due to internal dynamics

(e.g. trophic cascades) or rapid external forcing – requires understanding of ecosystem

structure. GCRC is in a strong position to advance this structural understanding, taking

advantage of their year-round proximity to key ecosystems. In particular, the marine

ecosystem of the Godthåbsfjord region provides a central focus to which work on, for

example, surrounding glaciers can be connected.

Climate change poses significant social, economic, and political challenges for

Greenland. Its cultural engagement with European society is nearly 300 years old and its

cultural traditions are much older still. The people of Greenland have always been

intensely interested in the changing climate and its significance for their livelihoods, and

their well being and resilience have depended on having detailed knowledge of the

changing ecological systems. The socio-economic trends towards urbanization and

centralization require an environmental research capacity to analyze complex emerging

socio-economic challenges. As Greenland pursues its goals of increasing political

autonomy and regional integration, developing its own research capacity to understand

the relationship between climate, ecology and social economy is taking on greater

importance than ever before.

Situated in one of the most important emerging urban centers in the Arctic, the GCRC is

in a uniquely strong position to explore the complex social and ecological interactions

impacting Nuuk. Although the international science community and media often

overlook the ecological setting of Arctic towns and cities, it is crucial for understanding

Greenland’s future and putting in place well-designed planning procedures. Without the

GCRC to undertake a series of long-term, sustained studies, Nuuk would remain

relatively unexplored with potentially long lasting negative consequences for health and

environments. By contrast, developing close ties with Nuuk’s institutions and

communities provides a crucial basis for integrated research that addresses the GCRC’s

four priority areas.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

GCRC has the potential to be a leading facility in Arctic and climate research. Most of

the researchers are very cognizant of their potential impact in science and societal issues.

From interviews and inspection of their records, the committee clearly appreciated that

most GCRC researchers can and are taking advantage of the unique environment and

geographical location to engage in studies that have implications for our understanding of

Arctic systems both locally and globally. Indeed, the Centre, by its very existence,

provides a solid foundation to support diverse research through the many resources that

are currently in place, including the instrumentation, equipment and facilities necessary

to collect and utilize unique datasets. In addition, Centre researchers and staff possess

local knowledge that is essential to accessing and working in difficult and remote field

locations that not only benefits their own activities but also is critical to the success of

international researchers who wish to work in Greenland. Already, many of the Centre’s

PI’s are engaged in research that is contributing to our understanding of important Arctic

processes and feedbacks, for example with studies focused on interactions between ice

sheet/sea ice dynamics, ecological interactions and climate change.

The publication record of the GCRC thus far is extensive, and clearly shows the quality

of science that can be achieved with engaged faculty and students. However, with very

few exceptions, the publications are in specialized journals where the readership is

largely focused on specific issues in a discipline. The few publications that address

climate change in the Arctic from a broad perspective, published for example in Nature

Climate Change, are not yet of high impact and the direct contribution of GCRC

members to the publications are not immediately clear. Regardless, it is reasonable to

assume that with a more engaged Director and more extensive communication between

investigators, a focus on broad issues and historical data analysis, a more coherent, high

profile contribution on the impacts of climate change in the Arctic should emerge.

Indeed, this should be a goal for a symposium or a dedicated volume of a high profile

journal.

Defining whether a research portfolio is “basic” or “applied” is always fraught with

conceptual definitions. There is nothing better to guide “applied” research than a good

theory. There is little new theory in the publications from the GCRC to date – and that

leads the committee to infer that most of the publications are application oriented, but are

they innovative? The committee concludes that the hard-hitting innovative research

products (e.g., publications, patents, interactions with industrial partners, etc.) are largely

lacking. The GCRC has the potential to develop high quality innovative research on

fisheries (e.g., match/mismatch theory in the context of global climate change,

recruitment and sustainability), on ice sheet stability and climate feedback, on

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thermohaline circulation and the paleo-oceanographic record of the adjacent seaways, on

the cultural disruptions on Greenlandic economies and social interactions, and many

others. While these are only examples of themes that are “application oriented”, and

there are undoubtedly many more, concerted efforts in these areas depends on leadership,

communication, and motivation.

The collaborative environment at GCRC has been an essential component of many

research projects being undertaken, and is particularly helpful in addressing the cross-

disciplinary nature of diverse issues around climate research. By promoting joint

research and partnerships, and encouraging research that is interdisciplinary by nature,

the Centre has been successful in creating opportunities for researchers in different fields

to work together. This has been particularly true in promoting partnerships between

researchers in Greenland and Denmark. For example, the GCRC has played a positive

role in promoting Danish Arctic Science by facilitating collaborative efforts between

terrestrial and aquatic groups that normally work in isolation from each other.

Collaborative work is particularly important to the new ‘Climate and Society’ Program,

which seeks to establish links between the natural and social sciences in Greenland. Until

recently, the position of Associate Director of the GCRC responsible for organizing and

leading the efforts on impacts of climate change on Greenlandic society was unfilled.

Although there have been delays in the execution of this program, the committee was

pleased that an extremely competent scientist and leader was identified to fill the vacant

position, and that under Professor Nuttall’s direction the various efforts in this critical

area are finally becoming a key focus for the GCRC. The committee also noted that the

fledgling social science efforts have already resulted in communication between social

science researchers and policy makers in Greenland. However, without a coherent vision

of the GCRC, the gaps between natural and social sciences may not be addressed

adequately. This issue is especially critical as commercial interests in mining and other

industries that seek to exploit Greenland’s natural resources potentially disrupt

Greenlandic society and structure.

Gaining a shared interdisciplinary understanding of climate change processes will be

critical for assessing the influence of climate change on Greenlandic society, particularly

where its economy, commerce and technology depend on the changing marine, limnic

and terrestrial environments. Social science research on the impacts of Arctic climate

change has developed significantly in recent years. Nevertheless more research is

required to assess the impacts of climate change for Greenland’s social-economic future.

Traditional distinctions between urban and rural environments may need to be rethought

to face up to the challenges posed by climate change. Integrated methods will be required

to assess how climate change alters the perceptions and calculation of risk in relation to

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non-renewable resource extraction. Investigating how the Greenlandic public understands

the changing environment will also be valuable for establishing responsive evidence-

based health policies. In summary a social research program is required that fully

explores relationships between society, environment and technology in order to provide

an ongoing evaluation of the multiple dimensions of risk to environment and health.

To maximize the Centre's research potential and opportunities to ensure the long-term

viability and success, there are some major weaknesses within the current structure that

urgently need to be addressed. First, the GCRC does not appear to have a coherent

strategic plan. While there may be intersecting themes in the research program, the

researchers often work in relative isolation, and many groups have little or no

connections to each other, especially across disciplines. This issue must be remedied.

The overall vision has not been clearly articulated and the structure now embodies a

diverse suite of programs that often work separately, rather than focus on a central

mission.

The lack of a coherent vision appears to be due, in large part, to the lack of a full-time,

dedicated Director that focuses on driving the strategic directions of the Centre and

distinguishing the ongoing studies and research opportunities to the outside research

community and to Greenlandic society. The GCRC needs to be recognized for the

research and activities that has grown from the Centre and not confused with outside

institutions, such as GINR. By having not as yet distinguished itself as an independent

institution, the overall Centre and the researchers engaged in quality science are not

receiving the recognition they and the center deserve. The GCRC leadership does not

appear to be focused on highlighting the research achievements that have developed out

of these programs, which will be essential if the Centre is to distinguish itself as a

prominent Arctic Science institution.

Lastly, communication between GCRC leadership and the program PI's and other

researchers has been limited, and is hampered by a lack of formal structure and a decision

making process that is not transparent. This is partially the result of an overall absence of

a culture of scientific sharing of information, which appears to stem from the (lack) of

leadership. The lack of communication affects each successive level of operation. There

are limited opportunities for people at GCRC who are not directly engaged with each

other to interact with other researchers, and the PI's rely on a sole annual meeting, that

may or may not be located in Greenland, to formally share the results of their research.

This lack of formal and regular communication is also problematic for the younger

scientists and Ph.D. students, and has resulted in a lack of mentorship for the people that

most need it. Current structures for Ph.D.’s don’t seem entirely successful, and at least

one student lost GCRC funding when a project was not renewed. The issue can be

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partially addressed via increased attention to infrastructure (i.e., videoconferencing

capabilities), but mostly it requires leadership.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

After careful consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the GCRC, the committee

elected to provide a set of recommendations for the future of the GCRC, both as a

Greenlandic/Danish institution and as a critical global resource for understanding climate

change and its consequences in coming decades. The committee fully realized that long-

term funding for the GCRC is critical and assumed that funding would continue at

present or higher levels to help the institution meet its expected goals. To that end, the

committee provides four high level recommendations, which, if not accommodated,

almost certainly will result in underperformance if not outright failure of the GCRC in

coming years.

Recommendation 1:

The GCRC needs a dedicated full-time Director.

The Director is essential to the success of the GCRC. Whilst a key role will be to engage

the wider external community and promote the Centre, the Director should reside in and

work primarily from Greenland. The Director must be accessible to the resident GCRC

staff and visiting scientists and be involved in day-to-day decisions about the strategic

scientific and administrative issues confronting the GCRC.

The Director should develop a coherent strategic plan with input from the

research community and external stakeholders, particularly those in Greenland

and Denmark, and including input from political stakeholders and members of

Greenlandic society.

The Director should engage in activities that build relationships with Greenlandic

society to ensure the science is relevant to local needs and to develop strong

support from local leaders and decision makers.

The Director should be highly engaged with the activities of resident and visiting

scientists.

Recommendation 2:

The program needs a clear vision.

The committee recommends the development of a focused and prioritized research

program, which includes emphasis on social science research and its integration with

natural science to form a truly inter-disciplinary research program.

This plan should identify clear goals of the Centre and not be a vehicle for the

requirements of external stakeholders.

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The GCRC should focus on core climate change research in Greenland, such as

the fate of the ice sheet and surrounding ocean circulation, sea-ice and

atmosphere, which all play a critical role in determining much wider climate

change impacts

and

take advantage of Greenland’s unique physical systems and

ecosystems to address under-studied but important components of this coupled

system.

The intersection between natural and social sciences should be organized across

disciplinary boundaries to help provide unvarnished, objective data and analyses

for policy makers and Greenlandic society.

Recommendation 3:

The program needs to become independent and to reach out far

more to the international community.

The GCRC should aim to become an independent Centre recognized for its research

in Arctic climate science by 2020.

The GCRC has the potential to be a strong ‘brand’ in climate change research. At

present the Centre has low visibility and is not clearly distinct from GINR (e.g. on

the internet). Outreach and knowledge exchange opportunities should be

promoted to raise the profile of the Centre, for example by hosting events with

stakeholders.

PIs should recognize that they are part of the Centre’s overall research endeavor,

and that the GCRC is the primary institute for all projects funded or facilitated by

the Centre. Steps should be taken to identify the GCRC in all research outputs:

for example, by being identified on all research publications.

Recommendation 4:

The program needs resources that make it effective in the long

term (i.e. decades).

To date, the committee feels that the GCRC has invested its resources too broadly,

especially in terms of the diversity of natural systems being studied across the projects.

Lack of funding was identified as limiting many of the PI’s ability to consider

global issues, create historical records, complete research and analyze data.

For example, although there is a Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring program

coordinated through Aarhus University, which should be a key focus of the

GCRC, the program appears to be limited in its scope of research by lack of

resources.

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ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 5:

A long-term observational program should be established as a

central mission for GCRC.

The program will focus on developing a high quality compilation of historical data,

coupled with a long-term monitoring program at key locations both on land and in the

ocean. The GCRC should be a “one stop shop” for all key historical data related to

climate and natural resources for the region. Although this issue has been articulated in

various GCRC documents, the committee could not identify specific personnel dedicated

to the task of compiling, verifying, and analyzing historical data related to (e.g.) the

physical climate system regionally, fisheries and other natural resources, and social

changes over the past century or earlier.

Recommendation 6:

The Director should ensure transparency when making decisions

about the funding of projects.

The basis for all decisions relating to the selection of projects to be funded, extended or

discontinued should be based on a transparent evaluation process and formally

documented.

Individual project evaluations should be fully justified according to an explicit set

of criteria, and the reasoning behind decisions and recommendations should be

formally communicated to senior project investigators.

A system of appraisals should be introduced that allows senior project

investigators the opportunity to provide feedback to Centre leadership.

Centre leadership should make use of the advice of external reviewers when

necessary, for example if additional specialized or technical expertise is required

to conduct an informed evaluation, or when important and sensitive decisions

need to be made about future funding or termination of a project.

Recommendation 7:

Communication between the Director and Centre leadership, and

PI’s, students and staff of the GCRC should be strengthened to foster a collaborative

research environment.

This is particularly important for the development of younger scientists, and for the

integration of the overall research program.

The GCRC core team and PI’s, researchers and students who are not based in

Greenland should commit to participate in a series of regular research seminars,

which could be webcast, to bring together geographically separated groups.

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In addition to the annual meeting, which was felt to be insufficient by most

project PIs, there needs to be more regular formalized meetings. One option is to

meet in person as a whole research Centre twice per year. Another option is to

instigate additional meetings for each inter-disciplinary research focus.

Recommendation 8:

External communication and outreach activities should be

strengthened to share research outcomes and foster a sense of community between the

Centre and Greenlandic society.

The GCRC should aim to share its sense of community beyond the walls of the institution

by seeking ways to communicate the relevance of GCRC’s activities and to take

opportunities to engage with communities in Nuuk, and where practicable, further afield

in Greenland.

Recommendation 9:

Capacity building should become a core component of research

activities across the GCRC.

The role of Ph.D. students in the program should be re-evaluated in relation to the

program’s research priorities and to the students’ career development. The

committee recommends that where practicable, Ph.D. projects should be awarded

jointly to a team of supervisors developing and building on links between cognate

areas of expertise, and not as part of a grant for a project being overseen by a

single senior investigator.

Mentorship of students and support from their supervisors and institutions needs

to become formalized to ensure that students are integrated into the academic

community, both within the GCRC and externally in their respective international

fields of research. The interdisciplinary projects generated by the GCRC’s

collaborative research structure should contribute to an inclusive research

environment and a sense of community and fellowship amongst Ph.D. students

and their supervisors.

The Director should aim to establish a new Postdoctoral position. In addition to

contributing to a well-defined set of research priorities, this position should

represent an important opportunity for early career development and leadership.

The position should also help to illustrate possible pathways for existing Ph.D.

students to move on to postdoctoral research within the GCRC.

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APPENDIX A

Committee Biographies

Professor Paul G. Falkowski

(Committee Chair)

is the Bennett Smith Professor in the

Department of Earth and Planetary Science and the Business School at Rutgers

University and is the Director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. His scientific interests

include evolution of the Earth systems, paleoecology, photosynthesis, biophysics,

biogeochemical cycles, and symbiosis. Professor Falkowski earned his B.S. and M.Sc.

degrees from the City College of the City University of New York and his Ph.D. from the

University of British Columbia. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of

Rhode Island, he joined Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1976 as a scientist in the

newly formed Oceanographic Sciences Division. He served as head of the division from

1986 to 1991 and deputy chair in the Department of Applied Science from 1991-1995,

responsible for the development and oversight of all environmental science programs. In

1996, he was appointed as the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor at the

University of British Columbia. He moved to Rutgers University in 1998. He received a

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992; the Huntsman Medal in 1998; the

Hutchinson Prize in 2000; the Vernadsky medal from the European Geosciences Union in

2007, the Ecology Institute Prize in 2010 and the Albert 1

Medal in 2011. In 2001, he

was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union; in 2002, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 2007, he was elected to the United States

National Academy of Sciences; and in 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the American

Academy of Microbiology.

Professor Michael T. Bravo

is a Fellow of Downing College and Head of the

Circumpolar History and Public Policy Research Group at the Scott Polar Research

Institute, at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. He has published

widely around research problems in the history and philosophy of science relating to the

history of fieldwork experiments, the reliability of instruments and data, and scientific

networks. More broadly he also published extensively on environmental history, cross-

cultural encounters, anthropology, and postcolonialism. He earned his B.Eng. in electrical

engineering from Carleton University (1985) and his M.Phil. (1986) and Ph.D. degrees

(1992) from Cambridge in the history and philosophy of science. After holding a British

Academy post-doctoral research fellowship (1993-35), he took up a University Research

Fellowship at Manchester University (1995-2000) to develop the use of ethnographic

methods in the study of science and technology. In 2000, he was appointed to a

University Lectureship at the University of Cambridge and was promoted in 2008 to a

Senior Lectureship. He is now Head of the Circumpolar History and Public Policy

Research Group at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. He has

held visiting fellowship and professorships at the Huntingdon Library, Pomona College,

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the Institute for Advanced Studies in Copenhagen, and the University of Tromso. He has

acted in expert advisory roles to many international organizations including the Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace and the Canadian Council of Academies. His

published work includes

Narrating the Arctic

(2002) and

Arctic Geopolitics and

Autonomy

(2011) as well as many scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

Professor Tim Lenton

is Professor of Earth System Science and Professor of Climate

Change at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on understanding the behavior

of the Earth as a whole system, especially through the development and use of Earth

system models. He is particularly interested in how life has reshaped the planet in the

past, and what lessons we can draw from this as we proceed to reshape the planet now –

as detailed in his book with Andrew Watson on the ‘Revolutions that made the Earth’

(OUP, 2011). Tim’s work identifying the tipping elements in the climate system won the

Times Higher Education Award for Research Project of the Year 2008. He has also

received a Philip Leverhulme Prize 2004, a European Geosciences Union Outstanding

Young Scientist Award 2006, the British Association Charles Lyell Award Lecture 2006,

and the Geological Society of London William Smith Fund 2008.

Professor Nicholas J.P. Owens

is the Director of the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for

Ocean Science (SAHFOS) based in Plymouth and Professor of Ocean Science at the

University of Plymouth. He is also a non-executive director of the Centre for

Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, an executive agency of Defra.

Professor Owens trained as a marine biologist and received a BSc from the University of

Liverpool and a PhD from the University of Dundee. He first worked at the Plymouth

Marine Laboratory where he carried out fundamental research primarily in the field of

marine plankton and the links with the cycling of nitrogen and carbon. During this time

he spent over three years at sea in research ships, large and small, in seas and oceans

relatively near to home - the North Sea, Irish Sea and Western Approaches – to further

afield including the Indian Ocean and Antarctic Ocean. In all Professor Owens has

published over 100 research articles and papers in the learned literature. In 1993,

Professor Owens was appointed Professor of Marine Science at the University of

Newcastle before returning to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, in 2000, as its Director.

In 2007 Professor Owens became the Director of the British Antarctic Survey during

which time he visited all parts of the White Continent as well as the High Arctic. In

August of this year Professor Owens became the Director of SAHFOS, an organization

which has been monitoring the health of the oceans for over 80 years through research on

the plankton: through this move Professor Owens has returned to his first professional

love – the plankton.

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Secretary

Sherrie Forrest

is a Program Officer at the National Research Council (NRC) of the

National Academy of Sciences in the Division on Earth and Life Studies. Her current

work is with the Disasters Roundtable, which brings together U.S. federal agencies, the

private sector and experts in the fields of science, engineering, and other disciplines

related to hazards to explore issues around how to mitigate and respond to natural and

man-made disasters through advancements in policy, science, technology and research.

Previously, she worked with the Board on Science Education and the Ocean Studies

Board on projects that include the Roundtable on Climate Change Education, the

Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards, and the Effects of the

Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon-252 Oil Spill on Ecosystem Services in the Gulf

of Mexico. Ms. Forrest obtained a M.S. in biological oceanography from the Institute of

Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University and a B.A. in English from

Pepperdine University.

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APPENDIX B

GCRC Meeting Agenda

Greenland Climate Research Centre Evaluation

GCRC Interview Agenda

Copenhagen, Denmark

November 27, 2012

Interviews

10:00-11:00 AM

Soren Rysgaard,

Professor, Head of GCRC, Internal Staff

Torben Rojle Christensen,

Professor, Vice Head of GCRC,

Internal Staff

Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen,

Deputy Head, GCRC, Internal Staff

Project 6501: Andre Visser,

Associate Professor, External Staff,

National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of

Denmark (DTU – AQUA), Physical Oceanography,

Oceanography

and Marine Ecology Dept.,

Physical oceanography in Greenland

waters under climate change

Project 6502: Erik Jeppesen,

Professor, External Staff, Dept. of

Bioscience, Freshwater Ecology, Aarhaus University,

Climate

effects on land-based ecosystems and their living resources in

Greenland

Project 6504: Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen,

External Staff,

Scientific Head, Danish Climate Center Danish Meteorological

Institute,

Climate simulations

Jesper Raakjaer

(social science project), External Staff,

Innovative Fishery Mgmt. (IFM), Marine Governance and Coastal

Policy, Professor and Head of Center, Aalborg University,

The

West Greenland marine ecosystem and climate change – The

socio-economic adaptation and governance challenges for

fisheries management

11:00-11:20

11:20-11:40

11:40-12:00 PM

12:30-12:50

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12:50-1:10

Project 6505: Einar Eg Nielsen,

External Staff, Professor,

Section for Population Ecology and Genetics, National Institute of

Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark (DTU-

Aqua),

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in Greenlandic waters;

past and future under climate change

Project 6506: Torkel Gissel Nielsen

(skype), External Staff,

Professor, environmental plankton ecology, Section for Marine

Ecology and Climate, National Institute of Aquatic Resources

(DTU Aqua), Technical University of Denmark (since 2009),

Arctic plankton dynamic - in a changing climate

Project 6507: Ronnie Glud,

Internal Staff, Professor at University

of Southern Denmark,

Marine arctic carbon cycle and

consequences of climate changes and sea-ice coverage

Project 6508: Leif Tudal,

External Staff, senior researcher,

Danish Meteorological Institute,

Satellite surveillance of

Greenland Waters

Project 6509: Dorthe Dahl Jensen,

Professor, Niels Bohr

Institute, University of Copenhagen,

Coastal Glaciers

1:10-1:30

1:30-1:50

1:50-2:10

2:40-3:00

3:00-3:20

Project 651l: Colin Stedmon,

Senior Scientist, External Staff,

National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of

Denmark (DTU – AQUA),

Marine biogeochemistry and optics,

Physical oceanography in Greenland waters under climate change

Project 6510: Malene Simon

(video), Senior Scientist, internal

staff, marine mammals,

Baleen whales

Project 6513: Martin Blicher

(video link), Senior Scientist,

internal staff,

Internal ecology in West Greenland

Project 6514: Kristine Arend

Scientist, internal staff,

zooplankton ecology,

Small copepods

Project 6515: John Mortensen,

Scientist, internal staff,

oceanography,

Mooring network

3:20-3:40

3:40-4:20

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4:20-4:40

Project 6002: Mark Nuttall

(video link), Professor, Head of

Climate and Society, Internal Staff

Project 6512: Peter Winsor

(video), Martin Truffer

Drifting

4:40-5:00

Buoys

5:00-5:20

Project 6516: Kunuk Lennert,

Program coordinator/PhD student,

internal staff, marine ecology

Winter moorings at Kangersuneq

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APPENDIX C

Terms of Reference

Evaluation of Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC)

Background

The Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC) is concerned with the expected

impacts of climate change on Arctic marine, limnic and terrestrial environments and on

Greenlandic society, including adaptation and prevention strategies.

GCRC was established in 2009 by a funding allocation under the Danish National

Budget and was realized jointly by the Commission for Scientific Research in

Greenland (KVUG), the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and Ilisimatusarfik -

University of Greenland. The Centre is located at the Greenland Institute of Natural

Resources in Nuuk. A total of DKK 73.8m has been allocated from the 2009-2012

Globalization Fund

to run the Centre for a five-year period ending 1 May 2014. KVUG

is responsible for allocating the funding within frameworks set out in a letter of

allocation from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (FI) to

KVUG in 2009.

GCRC activities involve a large number of Greenlandic and Danish researchers, in

addition to researchers from other countries. The Centre currently has seven researchers

on its staff, including three PhD students and around 80 researchers attached to 24

different projects organized under 10 different research units.

The letter of allocation from FI to KVUG requires an independent center-evaluation to

have been conducted by the end of the Centre's fourth year (1 May 2013).

Taking into account the fact that the GCRC has existed for only a few years, the

evaluation will be preliminary in nature and concern the Centre's activities and results

to date.

Purpose, target audience and application

The purpose of the evaluation is to rate the quality of GCRC activities and preliminary

results within the Centre's four priority areas:

Nature and environment

Society and commerce

Technology and infrastructure

Interaction between the three sectors

2009: DKK 19.6m, 2010: DKK 14.8m, 2011: DKK 19.7m, 2012: DKK 19.7m.

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The quality of GCRC activities and results will be evaluated with reference to the

scientific, societal and organizational goals defined for the Centre.

The target audience for the evaluation is primarily the political system, including

Greenlandic and Danish politicians and authorities, which will be able to use the

evaluation in determining whether the Centre has met the defined goals.

Delimitation of the evaluand

The evaluand will comprise the GCRC and the activities carried out under the auspices

of the Centre from its establishment in May 2009 onwards. The evaluation will

comprise all activities financed by the grant awarded to the Centre.

Evaluation criteria

The evaluation will rate the quality of GCRC activities and results within the Centre's

four priority areas; cf. the purpose and letter of allocation. In addition, the evaluation

will assess whether the GCRC organization supports attainment of the goals for the

Centre.

The goals set out in the letter of allocation are primarily informed by a scientific

perspective, but, as mentioned above, the wider goals embody a societal perspective

and an organizational perspective in that the Centre is required to:

make a high profile, expert contribution focusing on the impacts of climate

change in the Arctic

continuously coordinate its activities with other research programmes

conduct application-oriented and innovative research

make significant contributions to assessment of the influence of climate change

on the Arctic marine, limnic and terrestrial environments and on Greenlandic

society, including its economy, commerce and technology

achieve capacity building and a permanent base of support in Greenland

The following indicators, may, where feasible, be included in evaluation of goal

attainment:

Publications and citations

Establishment of research infrastructure

Establishment of social science and natural science research environments in

Greenland

Research training and qualification (e.g. PhD degrees)

Recruitment of internationally recognized researchers for projects carried out

under the auspices of the Centre

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Formalized international research collaboration and research networks (e.g. joint

publishing, joint research and funding applications and joint conference hosting)

Success in attracting external financing

Consultancy and projects commissioned by public authorities (e.g. articles and

scientific reports)

Participation in commissions and boards

Research management

Contribution to education and teaching (e.g. teaching programmes and text

books and compendiums)

Dissemination (e.g. books and features and other publicity to promote research)

Organization

KVUG appoints an independent international peer review panel, which is responsible

for conducting the evaluation, including the preparation of an evaluation report. The

panel will be composed of internationally recognized researchers in Arctic or Antarctic

climate research and cover the Centre's four priority areas: nature and environment,

society and commerce, technology and infrastructure and interaction between the three

sectors.

The members of the panel are required to have substantial practical experience of

research management. The panel is to be composed of up to 3 members and a

chairperson. To assist the panel in data collection and preparation of the evaluation

report, an independent secretary, e.g. a PhD student, will be appointed.

The KVUG secretariat drafts a set of guidelines for the self-evaluation. In addition, the

KVUG secretariat may, by arrangement with the chairperson, assist in quality-assuring

the data collection and the preparation of background reports. Finally, the KVUG

secretariat may assist the panel with the practicalities of the evaluation such as travel

planning and arranging interviews.

Data collection methods

Data will be collected by two methods. Firstly, GCRC is required to perform a self-

evaluation. Secondly, the panel will conduct qualitative interviews with Centre

Management and a selection of the researchers attached to the Centre. In addition, the

evaluation must include existing documentation.

Self-evaluation

The purpose of the self-evaluation is to furnish the panel with the Centre's own

description of strengths and weaknesses, including an analysis of the research activities

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and results achieved. The panel is also required to use the self-evaluation as a basis for

the qualitative interviews.

The self-evaluation will consist of two parts. One part will be completed by Centre

Management, the scientific staff, including PhD students, Centre Administration and

the Director of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. The second part will be

completed by the ten research units that have projects funded by the Greenland Climate

Research Centre (AAU Innovative Fisheries Management; Centre for Ocean and Ice

and Danish Climate Centre (both Danish Meteorological Institute); Dept. of Arctic

Environment, Dept. of Marine Ecology, and Dept. of Atmospheric Environment (all

National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University); DTU Aqua - National

Institute of Aquatic Resources (Technical University of Denmark); Ilisimatusarfik -

University of Greenland; Niels Bohr Institute (University of Copenhagen); and Institute

of Biology, University of Southern Denmark). The responses from the research units

are to be drawn up by the management of those units.

The self-evaluation will be prepared on the basis of a set of guidelines prepared by the

panel based, in turn, on a draft from the KVUG Secretariat. Centre Management at

GCRC is responsible for consolidating the responses from the ten Centre units.

Qualitative interviews

The panel interview with GCRC serves several purposes: first, it is an opportunity for

the panel to obtain validation of and supplementary information on the contents of the

self-evaluation report, and second, it allows the panel to test the validity of its

preliminary assessments following its review of the self-evaluation report and other

documentation.

Interviews will be conducted with Centre Management, the scientific staff, including

PhD students, the Director of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, and with the

ten research units. The interviews with the research units may be conducted by

telephone, as appropriate. Interviews will be based on an interview guide produced by

the panel.

Existing documentation

In addition, the evaluation will consult existing documentation concerning the

frameworks for the Centre, its activities and organization, including the following:

Letter of allocation from FI

Funding descriptions

GCRC programme of activities

Organization chart

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Vision, mission, goals and strategies

Collaboration agreements between GCRC and projects

Scientific reports from GCRC to KVUG

Scientific reports from the projects to GCRC

Publication lists

GCRC is responsible for procuring an English version of the materials, jointly with the

KVUG Secretariat.

Final report

The evaluation will result in a written report in English of no more than 50 pages. The

report is to contain a description and analysis of data, the panel's evaluations, together

with a summary in Danish suitable for publication.

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Comments on the report of the mid-term evaluation of the

Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC)

The mid-term evaluation report includes several good recommendations, which the

leadership acknowledge, appreciate and will take action on. The centre‟s leadership and

principal investigators (PI´s) have discussed the report in detail and consider that several

important aspects of it warrant a response and should not be left to stand alone. This

document represents a joint comment from the GCRC leadership and all PI‟s of the

centre‟s individual projects.

Some criticism by the evaluation panel appears to have arisen due to the fact that it

carried out all its work externally, i.e. outside Greenland. Furthermore, constraints

imposed by the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland (KVUG) on the

structure and strategy for GCRC have apparently not been clarified with the evaluation

panel for the purposes of its work. It is unfortunate and a matter of regret that the panel

missed the opportunity to visit Nuuk and to experience GCRC first hand, to gain insight

into the range of activities it carries out and supports, to meet key personnel, and to

understand how GCRC is integrated within, and connects to, scientific and academic

institutions in Nuuk and with the wider Greenlandic society. The absence of such an on-

site visit reduces, in our view, the comprehensiveness of the evaluation process

concerning a number of its key conclusions. Furthermore, the panel was invited but

missed the opportunity to participate in GCRC‟s annual meeting where it would have

been possible to meet all scientists and staff and gain a far richer understanding and more

comprehensive overview of the centre‟s organization and the studies being conducted.

We have the following eleven comments on the evaluation report and the panel‟s nine

recommendations:

1) The absence of a visit to the research facility itself in Nuuk is disappointing and has

likely had major disadvantages and significant bearing on the conduct of the evaluation

process. We recommend that the absence of a visit to the Greenland Institute of Natural

Resources (GINR) and GCRC to see the facilities in Nuuk, meet the staff and gain a first-

hand understanding of the unique environment of which GCRC is an integral part is

mentioned clearly in the introduction to the evaluation report.

2) Valuable information on how GCRC actually performs locally in Greenland could

have been acquired if the panel had conducted interviews with representatives of other

Greenlandic stakeholders / institutions / partners, such as the Self-Rule Government,

Asiaq, Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland, local

authorities, etc. As an example, the mayor of Nuuk and several Greenland government

Ministers and officials have been crediting the initiatives and work carried out by GCRC

and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR). As a result, the evaluation

report only weakly reflects how influential the center has been in a Greenland context.

3) As recommended in the evaluation report, it is important to identify a future full-time

leader of the center to be based in Nuuk and advertisement for qualified candidates will

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be announced when the centers form and financial situation after the first term is known.

The energy and enthusiasm of Professor Søren Rysgaard is not easy to match and it is

important to draw on his experience in a future center. Søren Rysgaard worked in Nuuk

as a full-time leader from the date of the centre‟s establishment until autumn 2011 when,

for personal reasons, he moved with his family to Denmark. This move was accepted and

approved by the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland (KVUG) and it was

agreed that Søren Rysgaard should share the leadership with Professor Torben Røjle

Christensen. The deputy head of GCRC, Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen, has been present

continuously. In addition, Professor Mark Nuttall began his research and teaching

activities under GCRC‟s „Climate and Society‟ programme in February 2012, together

with scientist and head of communications at GCRC, Lene Kielsen Holm. They have

joined the team of leaders and have, since last year, ensured a stronger connection

between GCRC, Ilisimatusarfik and the wider Greenland community. With a future full-

time leader present in Nuuk, the mentoring of young local students and scientists can be

done on a day to day basis and with this GCRC will achieve the necessary local structure.

4) GCRC has been driven by coherent visions developed in the first year of its operations

during a three-day meeting held at Søminestationen, Denmark, which included all PI‟s

and internal staff. Additionally, several meetings have been held in Greenland with the

local GCRC team to update visions and strategies. We will strive to make these visions

more visible on the GCRC home pages.

5) As stated by the panel, GCRC should be recognized for its research and activities and

we find this has been achieved to a very high degree. That GCRC is affiliated with GINR

was an initial condition stipulated by KVUG. In addition, all hiring and administrative

support should be conducted through GINR. We find that it has proven to be a very

fruitful constellation that has led to a tremendous development in infrastructure, capacity

building and actual science in Greenland. A major part of this development has been

accomplished through additional external funding obtained through joint applications and

collaborative activities. During its short lifetime, GCRC has more than tripled the initial

funding. Søren Rysgaard has been instrumental in this development. Greenland‟s

population of some 57,000 is too small to support several research centers and we find

that the best way to obtain local capacity building and synergy between different science

disciplines is to combine local knowledge and administration. We recommend that

GCRC continues along this more collaborative path, thus contradicting the panel‟s

recommendation 3 that the GCRC should aim to become an independent centre

recognized for its research in Arctic climate by 2020.

6) We find that GCRC‟s PhD programme has been successful. PhD students working

within the Climate and Society programme are registered as full-time students at

Ilisimatusarfik. Consequently, all student research, supervision, mentoring and teaching

follow the “Guidelines for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at Ilisimatusarfik”.

The PhD students within the Climate and Society programme are members of academic

departments at Ilisimatusarfik and participate in the activities of those departments. They

have a supervisor and supervisory team overseeing their research programmes, they

participate in departmental meetings, they receive excellent training in research methods,

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and they are expected to teach undergraduate courses. PhD workshops and PhD summer

schools have also been organized. We are proud to have been able to achieve these high

academic standards in Greenland and to bridge GCRC and Ilisimatusarfik, which is a

successful model for graduate education and capacity building. GCRC has managed to

solve financial issues and thus enabled PhD students to continue their studies in several

cases. PhD students have also been registered at collaborating universities. While

presence in Greenland is crucial, we find that these students, through collaboration with

GCRC, have contributed to the capacity building of the center.

7) The self-evaluation of the “Climate and Society” programme outlines plans for

multidisciplinary projects. This was emphasised by Mark Nuttall during his interview.

Significant progress in developing multidisciplinary work has taken place. The comments

by the panel seem redundant given what is outlined in the “Climate and Society”

programme self-evaluation. It is also important to notice, that the commencement of the

social science part of GCRC was delayed due to difficulties in recruiting scientific

leadership in social science in Greenland. Hence the Climate and Society programme had

only just started before the onset of the evaluation process.

8) The evaluation report states that “communication between GCRC leadership and the

program PI‟s and other researchers has been limited, and is hampered by a lack of formal

structure and a decision making process that is not transparent”. Further it is stated: “This

is partially the result of an overall absence of a culture of scientific sharing of information,

which appears to stem from the lack of leadership”. The GCRC embraces 25 projects

including 120 researchers spread over 25 institutions placed very far apart. It has been a

challenge to obtain good communication. An important tool has been the annual meetings

including all PI‟s and as many team members as possible. In addition, the leadership has

organized several smaller meetings to ensure communication and data sharing between

different science disciplines and groups. There has been an overwhelming positive

response from participants that our annual meetings, besides being well organized, are

great opportunities to cross-fertilize the different projects and science disciplines. In fact,

several new projects have been established between projects with funding from both

national and international sources. Thus, we find the criticism from the evaluation board

rather harsh, but will continue to strive towards improving and encouraging

communication and collaboration in the future.

9) With respect to the panel‟s recommendation 2 on the need of a clear vision of the

programme: “The GCRC should focus on core climate change research in Greenland,

such as the fate of the ice sheet and surrounding ocean circulation, sea-ice and

atmosphere, which all play a critical role in determining much wider climate change

impacts

and

take advantage of Greenland‟s unique physical systems and ecosystems to

address under-studied but important components of this coupled system”. This was the

initial vision for the centre presented to KVUG by Søren Rysgaard. KVUG decided that

the center should consist of individual projects that apply independently for funding and

that the strongest projects – without evaluating the context, coherence or coupling –

should be integrated in the center. This obviously posed challenges when defining a clear

common research aim. However, in retrospect, GCRC has provided tremendous

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opportunities for collaboration between scientists across universities and disciplines. This

multiplicity

of projects is one of the strengths of GCRC that differentiate it from more

focused science topic initiatives. If GCRC should lose this colorful composition it may

lose some of its unique character, and as such we are thankful for the initial decision to

form the GCRC.

10) It seems vital that the evaluation panel is better informed on the background for

setting up the center. The structural setup of the center was to a high degree defined by

KVUG and has been complicated probably because it is an unusual and unique initiative

from the Ministry. The division of the funding in three rounds of applications and

evaluations results in a quite fragile situation especially in relation to field measurements

needing to be long-term enough to create results and PhD students dependent on funding

in all three periods. Another issue of which the panel seems unaware, causing much

frustration to PI‟s and projects, is the late decision of a 44% overhead charge. This

substantially reduced the funding and complicated project finances where initial budgets

and plans were based on a 20% overhead. In addition, each project proposal had

anticipated a time span of 3-5 years, but due to the rules applied to us by the Ministry of

Science, Innovation and Higher Education funding for more that 1-2 years at a time could

not be provided. This meant that several planned PhD positions were at risk and that each

PI had to ensure a guarantee from their individual institutions of payment of expenses

should the PI proposal not be funded in the next round of applications. The Centre

leadership had no capacity to guarantee continued funding. Despite this fact we solved

financial challenges to PhD funding along the way. This was only possible because of a

very fruitful collaboration between the GCRC leadership, PI‟s and their institutions.

12) We find that the scientific results already emerging from GCRC are impressive and

would have liked to see greater recognition of this by the evaluation panel. The report

unfortunately seems to focus on administrative aspects of the center rather than judging

what has actually been accomplished. At the time of this mid-term evaluation, GCRC

scientists had published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers in international journals,

including highly recognized journals. This is very impressive considering that several of

these articles were prepared locally in Greenland, and demonstrates that it is possible to

build a major modern research environment in Greenland. In addition, numerous articles

in newspapers and journals have been published, and information on a wealth of national

and international activities has been broadcasted. The centre has participated in numerous

conferences, has itself organized several large international conferences, and has raised

significant funding for new local research projects and large international science and

education networks, such as the Arctic Science Partnership (www.asp-net.org). In

addition, GCRC has collaborated with GINR to raise the necessary means for new

buildings, ships and vessels, field stations, multiple field and laboratory equipment and

instrumentation, a boathouse etc. Finally, GCRC has been instrumental in giving advice

on climate-related issues to local authorities and the Self-Rule Government.

UFU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Endeligt svar på spørgsmål 168: Spm. om ministeren vil fremsende relevante evalueringer af Globaliseringspuljen 2007-12, til Uddannelses- og forskningsministeren

This response has been prepared and agreed upon by the leadership and all principal

investigators in GCRC:

Søren Rysgaard, Professor, Center leader (GCRC)

Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen, Deputy head (GCRC)

Torben Røjle Christensen, Professor, Co-lead (GCRC)

Mark Nuttall, Professor, Co-lead (GCRC, University of Greenland)

Lene Kielsen Holm, Head of communications (GCRC, University of Greenland)

Klaus Nygaard, Director (Greenland Institute of Natural Resources)

Andre Visser, Professor (Danish Technical University)

Erik Jeppesen, Professor (Aarhus University)

Jesper Raakjær, Professor (Aalborg University)

Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, Center leader CRES (Danish Meteorology Institute)

Einar Eg Nielsen, Professor (Danish Technical University)

Torkel Gissel Nielsen, Professor (Danish Technical University)

Ronnie Nøhr Glud, Professor (University of Southern Denmark)

Leif Toudal, Senior Scientist (Danish Meteorology Institute)

Dorthe Dahl Jensen, Professor (Copenhagen University)

Colin Stedmon, Associate Professor (Danish Technical University)

Malene Simon, Senior scientist (GCRC)

Martin Emil Blicher, Senior scientist (GCRC)

Kristine Arendt, Scientist (GCRC)

John Mortensen, Scientist (GCRC)

Kunuk Lennert, Program coordinator (GCRC)

Martin Truffer, Professor (University of Fairbanks)