This month, CIRES will host the largest event in the institute's history. Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW), an annual meeting focused on research cooperation and collaboration in the Arctic, will take place on CU Boulder’s campus March 20-28, with an expected 800 attendees representing over 40 countries.

The meeting comes on the heels of NOAA’s 2024 annual global climate report that concluded 2024 was the hottest year on record since tracking began in 1850. Ten of the hottest years have been recorded in the last decade. 

"The Arctic is one of the fastest warming places on the planet, where changes impact firsthand the Peoples of Arctic and the rest of the world,” said Matthew Druckenmiller, chair of ASSW's organizing committee and research scientist in CIRES' National Snow and Ice Data Center. “This is truly a global challenge, requiring continued focused attention to tracking and responding to the impacts and to investing in the international partnerships that are necessary if we are to succeed at all."

Since 1999, different countries have hosted ASSW each year. In 2021, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) voted to hold the meeting in Boulder, a hub for world-class environmental research institutes. Hosting the meeting on Colorado’s Front Range is also significant for Indigenous Peoples—the area has been known as a traditional meeting place for time immemorial. 

Arctic warming has disproportionate impacts on Indigenous communities, so ASSW will highlight Indigenous voices and viewpoints throughout the meeting. This includes two Nordic-style tents to establish an Indigenous Pavillion on the University Memorial Center’s terrace, alongside the main conference. This space will support Indigenous attendees in sharing knowledge, cultures, art, and perspectives on their involvement and leadership within Arctic research. The pavilion will host other activities including an outdoor fire and a film festival that will illuminate Arctic stories. The opening panel features Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a leading voice of the Arctic’s Inuit people. 

A small 13-member Local Organizing Committee, with many from CIRES, spent nearly three years planning the event in coordination with the National Academy of Sciences’ Polar Research Board. CIRES Tribal Advisor, James Rattling Leaf Sr., was a member of the committee. 

"It is essential to recognize that Indigenous Peoples have been the original stewards of the Arctic for millennia,” Rattling Leaf said. “True progress in Arctic science will only happen when we work in full partnership with Indigenous communities—respecting their knowledge, rights, and leadership as co-creators of solutions for our shared future."

The conference, with 150 sessions and workshops and nearly 550 abstracts, includes five days of meetings and four days dedicated to the science planning conference, the Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV). The ICARP IV Summit’s theme “Arctic research planning for the next decade” includes sessions dedicated to crafting a 10-year Arctic research plan, which will shape the next International Polar Year in 2032-2033. The international community will weigh in and address unprecedented climate change, new technologies for climate solutions, and the complicated geopolitical realities facing the Arctic now and into the future. 

"This gathering is attempting to set, as much as possible, a shared international vision for the Arctic’s future,” Druckenmiller said. “Together, the hope is that we can take immediate steps to create more durable approaches and institutions for advancing equitable and action-oriented research that is up for the challenges we face. The spirit of the Arctic research community and the Indigenous leadership that helping to steer it forward provide many reasons to be hopeful.”