CNIC/Planning Visit: Initiation of US-Russia Collaborative Research in Improving Energy Efficiency, Utilizing Biomass, and Assessing Methane Release

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

OISE 11-57598 David McNelis University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill This project provides support for the PI and four colleagues to travel to Moscow and Arkhangelsk, Russia for research planning. The team will spend two days in Moscow meeting with colleagues at the Higher School of Economics (a State funded collaborator in this project). They will then proceed to Arkhangelsk for five days where they will meet with the Administration and Department Heads of the Northern Arctic Federal University (NArFU) to initiate the planning and logistics for long-term collaborative research programs in energy efficiency, biomass, and land-atmosphere methane exchange. These meetings will lay the foundation for follow-on interdisciplinary collaborative research proposals to be submitted to appropriate NSF disciplinary programs. The US team will also evaluate the feasibility of establishing a capstone program and field site at NArFU. The US team will examine laboratory facilities, field research sites, demonstration project facilities, appropriate mentors, and academic curriculum. NArFU in the Northern Arctic provides researchers from North Carolina access to resources that can significantly enhance an already strong research and educational program. This project will facilitate expansion of the program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from their existing well-established research program built around the climate in lower level latitudes to the climates of the far northern latitudes. This is a synergistic project that will provide the researchers and students from North Carolina a unique and worthwhile basis to expand their work on sustainability and the impacts of climate change.