Planning: Developing Collaborative Research Partnerships with Nunavut Communities

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports conceptualization, planning, and collaboration activities with two Canadian Inuit communities experiencing the effects of rapid climate change. The project will explore how known climate impacts intersect with non-climate variables (such as access to health care, paid work, and education) in two Arctic communities with mixed food systems (i.e., reliant upon both subsistence resources and participation in the market economy). Working in partnership with Elders and community leaders, the PI will conduct a series of virtual and in-person meetings to co-identify research questions, methods, and evaluation activities aligned with the communities’ food security goals. Ethical considerations will be explicitly addressed during the process. This collaborative work will lay the foundation for a standard research proposal that the PI will iterate with community members. Translations will be provided and community members will have the opportunity to comment using culturally appropriate modes of communication. Finally, the PI and communities will jointly develop evaluation milestones. This project is co-produced with two Inuit communities, who will partner with the PI to identify research questions and appropriate data collection methods. Initial meetings with community leaders and Elders will be informal and virtual, followed by in-person presentations and discussion with council members. Focus groups at each site will identify both food security concerns and community strengths, assisted by local research assistants and Inuktitut translators. Joint proposal design will be an iterative process, using multiple forms of outreach to engage community members. All stages of project planning will prioritize collaboration and partnership-building. Deliverables include a research proposal developed using these participatory methods and a peer-reviewed article describing the process. Broader impacts include graduate student training in Arctic research, capacity building, and the development of new research partnerships. This project is funded jointly by the Arctic Research Opportunities Program and Ethical and Responsible Research Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.