Planning: Southeast Alaska Research Coordination for Community Engagement

With environmental change occurring at a rapid rate in higher latitudes, Southeast Alaska rural and tribal residents are experiencing significant changes to their traditional and cultural way of life. Additionally, residents are also keenly aware of the influence of scientific research in the Arctic, yet often feel disconnected from the researchers working in their communities. This planning project will support the Sitka Sound Science Center (SSSC) and Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to improve engagement and collaboration by providing communication training to scientists working with small, rural, and tribal communities in the region. The planning grant will be used to develop a communication strategy that will deepen and strengthen the relationship between Southeast Alaska residents and scientists working in the region, an area as big as the State of Florida. The science communication training program will focus on providing scientists with practical skills for engagement, approaches for working with and within rural Alaska communities, and learning culturally appropriate communication techniques and connecting with local knowledge. The workshop will be led and developed by an integrated team, including Indigenous culture bearers, an Alaskan science communication expert, an Alaskan journalist, and scientists with experience working in the region. These planning efforts will explore and evaluate effective ways to provide communication training to scientists, potentially leading to broader efforts across the State of Alaska. Broader impacts include creating strategies to improve communication and collaboration between scientists and those living in Alaska. It will also benefit the broader scientific community by exposing scientist and students to the concepts of co-production and communication with the goal of building a future that allows a diverse citizenry to access and understand scientific thinking and scientific approaches to community problems. 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.