Greenland natural science data workshop: An NSF-funded workshop to assess the current data ecosystem and map the path forward

The entire organizing committee would like to thank everyone for their thoughtful insights, participation, and effort into making this a productive and successful workshop!  

This workshop took place October 5-6, 2022 at the University of Colorado in Boulder and virtually. The participants were members of the Greenland-focused data and research community. All gathered to share plans, discuss open opportunities, and chart the necessary developments in Greenland-focused data and tools to support the next decade of science in service to communities in Greenland and across the globe. The workshop focused primarily on data, tools, and workflows necessary to improve organization and insight within the natural sciences to ensure this community is well-prepared to contribute within broader models of co-production and interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or convergent research.  A final report was produced that outlined the main recommendations from the collaborations that occurred at the workshop as well as a slide summary of the recommendations.

The final workshop report and the summary slides are available in English and Greenlandic. These and other workshop materials have been archived and are available at the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Data Center (https://arcticdata.io/, https://doi.org/10.18739/A2C824G6X).


Photo credit: John Cassano

Workshop Description, Goals, Activities

With the swift expansion of Greenland-focused research, the National Science Foundation and other funders have supported the development of key data, tools, and programs. As these projects mature, however, coordination and community discussion is required to ensure that projects are working together, that gaps in data, tools, and workflows are identified, and that there is a shared vision for future development that can support efficient and effective research across a broadening group of participants. The workshop will focus primarily on data, tools, and workflows necessary to improve organization and insight within the natural sciences and ensure this community is well-prepared to contribute within broader models of co-production and interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or convergent research. We hope that the workshop is one activity within a larger continuum that should include data use, data sovereignty, and co-production discussions hosted in Greenland. 

Workshop attendees will work together to:

  • Map the ecosystem of Greenland natural science data archives, tools, and workflows
  • Identify and prioritize gaps in the data and tool ecosystem
  • Brainstorm routes to close gaps in the data to insight system
  • Bring judgment and prioritization to identified routes
Resources for meeting attendees

Resources of interest:

  • The Landscape of Social Science Data in the Arctic (Workshop Report, 2020)
  • Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Mobilizing Information for the Common Good (U.S. NASEM Report, 2022)
  • Future of Greenland Ice Sheet Science (Meeting Outcomes, 2022)
  • Facilitating Increased Engagement Between the Research Communities of Greenland and the U.S. (Workshop Report, 2018)
  • Open Knowledge Network Roadmap: Powering the Next Data Revolution (NSF Report, 2022)

Agenda Overview


Day 1 goals:

  • Map the ecosystem of Greenland natural science data archives, tools, workflows, and user needs.
  • Identify and prioritize gaps in the data and tool ecosystem

Day 2 goals:

  • Brainstorm routes to close gaps in the data to insight system
  • Bring judgment and prioritization to identified routes

Organizing committee

  • Twila Moon, Deputy Lead Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder. Lead PI for the NSF-funded QGreenland project, member of the Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean Science (GRISO) Network Steering Committee, Convergence Research lead for the Navigating the New Arctic Community Office (NNA-CO). (Organizing Committee Chair)
  • Jason Briner, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Buffalo, Lead PI for the NSF-funded GHub project, member of the GRISO Paleo Working Group.
  • Claire Porter, Acting Co-Director, Polar Geospatial Center. Co-PI on the NSF-funded Polar Geospatial Center, Project Manager for the ArcticDEM and REMA initiatives.
  • Matthew Jones, Director of Informatics at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara, Lead PI for the NSF-funded Arctic Data Center, co-PI on the NSF NNA-funded Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG) project, and Director for the DataONE repository network.
  • Kenneth Mankoff, Senior Associate Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Cooperative for Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder; GRISO Data Working Group lead; QGreenland layer contributor.
  • Elizabeth Cassano, Senior Associate Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder. (Workshop Coordinator)

Please contact Twila Moon (twila.moon@colorado.edu) with questions. 

This workshop is supported by the National Science Foundation Award 2230428.