The French Arctic Initiative's inaugural symposium entitled "Arctic : the Major Scientific Issues" will be held June 3-5, 2013 at Collège de France, in Paris. It will be followed, on June 6, 2013, by a day of reflection on future prospects for the Arctic and, in the evening, public event at l'Institut Océanographique.
The objectives of the symposium are:
- To address the major scientific issues and recent developments with regard to the Arctic,
- To mobilize the scientific community, from multiple disciplines, around these issues,
- To highlight the most promising avenues for improving our understanding of this complex system.
This symposium will lead to the production of a white paper on future research priorities confronting the French scientific community. The organizers of the symposium hope to attract the attention of the best researchers in the country, including those who have never worked on scientific problems in the Arctic. It is important to note that researchers with leading-edge expertise that is not necessarily focused on a particular environment may contribute to the development of innovative research in the Arctic. We will address the Arctic in a broad context in terms of discipline and temporal (past, present future) or spatial (polar, global) dimension.
The symposium is organized in the framework of a partnership between the French Arctic Initiative and la Chaire de l'Evolution du Climat et de l'Océan du Collège de France.