Stefansson Arctic Institute
The Stefansson Arctic Institute (SAI), established in 1998 and located in Akureyri, Iceland, is an independent governmental research institute within the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, with a long established collaboration agreement with the University of Akureyri. The SAI takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human-environment relations in the Circumpolar Arctic. Particular emphasis is on research and scientific assessments concerning economic systems and human development, marine-resource governance, political ecology of agricultural systems, and the impacts of and adaptation to past and present climate change. The SAI has a long history of international leadership of large-scale circumpolar projects on Arctic living conditions and human wellbeing (e.g. AHDR (2004, 2015), Arctic social indicator research (e.g. ASI (2010, 2015)) and Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures (2016-2019). The Institute is an active participant and partner in several other notable international networks of research and educational initiatives, programmes and projects, including e.g. IPCC, ASUS (Arctic Sustainability: A Synthesis of Knowledge), ArcticFrost (Arctic Frontiers of Sustainability: Resources, Societies, Environments and Development in a Changing North), CACCON (Circumpolar Arctic Coastal Communities Observatory Network), Future Earth Coasts, ReSDA (Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic), GREENICE, UArctic, IASSA, NSF, NABO, IASC Social and Human Working Group, and more.
