Arctic Research and Policy

The Office of Polar Programs (OPP) supports NSF's implementation of the Arctic Research and Policy Act.

ARCTIC RESEARCH AND POLICY ACT (ARPA)

The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984, Public Law 98-373, July 31, 1984; amended by Public Law 101-609, November 16, 1990 (ARPA), provides for a comprehensive national policy dealing with national research needs and objectives in the Arctic. The ARPA establishes an Arctic Research Commission (ARC) and an Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) to help implement the Act.

ARCTIC RESEARCH OF THE UNITED STATES

The journal Arctic Research of the United States is published by the Arctic Research and Policy Program of the National Science Foundation for the IARPC.

Arctic Research is aimed at national and international audiences of government officials, scientists, engineers, educators, private and public groups, and residents of the Arctic. The emphasis is on summary and survey articles covering U.S. Government-sponsored or funded research rather than on technical reports, and the articles are comprehensible to a non-technical audience. Although the articles go through the editorial review, manuscripts are not refereed for scientific content or merit.

James Osse, a University of Washington field engineer, skims ice from the surface of a hole used to retrieve a deep-sea mooring at the National Science Foundation’s North Pole Environmental Observatory. (NSF photo by Peter West)

Arctic Research contains:

• Reports on current and planned U.S. Government-sponsored research in the Arctic
• Reports of IARPC meetings
• Summaries of other current and planned arctic research.