Greenland Science Week (GSW) 2025 Recap

Trey Stafford

Robyn Marowitz

Twila Moon

Ian Nesbitt

Angie Garcia

2026-01-28

Outline

• Context: why, when, who, where?
• Breakdown of GSW
• Key takeaways/conclusions
• Opportunity for questions

Why Greenland in 2025?

• Greenland Science Week is every ~2 years. This is year 2 of our 3-year project.
  • Events held across Greenland Nov. 7-14.
  • QGreenland-Net team in Nuuk Nov. 9-16.
• Opportunity to engage with collaborators and others involved with Greenland-focused science directly.
• Listening/Learning!
• Getting the word out about our project (e.g,. via informative postcards)

QGreenland-Net Team In Greenland

• Trey Stafford and Robyn Marowitz of NSIDC attended as software developers
• Twila Moon of NSIDC attended as PI.
• Angie Garcia of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) attended as a community engagement/outreach coordinator.
• Ian Nesbitt of NCEAS attended as a data repository expert.

Getting to Greenland

 

Arriving in Nuuk

Nuuk

Greenland Science Week

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timeline
    section Pre-conference
        Mon. 3-9: Ilulissat Science Forum
                : Trey's vacation!
        Mon. 10th: Cryosphere side-meeting
        Tues. 11th : Marine Research Seminar
                   : Icelink meeting
                   : Conference reception
    section GSW conference
        Wed. 12th: Plenary sessions and talks
                 : Poster session
                 : Conference dinner
        Thurs. 13th: Plenary sessions and talks
                   : Ian & Twila presentations
    section Post-conference
        Fri. 14th : Collaborators meeting at Asiaq
                : Qaagitsi Public Science Festival
        Sat. 15th : "Team building" excursion

Ilulissat Science Forum Nov. 3-9

• Twila served as a moderator for a discussion about local impacts of climate change.
• Trey also attended a few events while in Ilulissat on vacation!

Cryosphere side-meeting Nov. 10

• Held at the Nuuk High School and included students.
• Hands-on component included samples from icebergs and a VR experience.
• Talks included information about Students on Ice (SOI) and research being done at GEUS about Ice Marginal Lakes.

Marine Research Seminar Nov. 11

Topics of talks included:

• Marine food webs and physical/human interactions.
• Ice-ocean interactions
• Upcoming research expeditions.
• Monitoring programs.
• Tourism and cruise ship industry.

There was a lot of ground covered in this day, and the topics above are a sampling.

In addition to talks and discussion, lunch was provided. Lunch was a nice opportunity to talk with people directly!

Icelink collaborator meeting Nov. 11

GSW Conference Nov. 12-13

• Plenary sesssions with translations from/to Greenlandic
• Two parallel tracks for talks from attendees
• Attendees and talks covered wide breadth of science in Greenland

Conference took place in the Katuaq culture center

The conference itself was held in the culture center in Nuuk. It was a large conference (#attendees?) that covered a huge range of topics related to science in Greenland. There were many people who studied snow/ice, but also ecosystems, biochemistry, climate modeling, astronomy, etc.

Our team attended both tracks of talks to ensure we heard about everything!

GSW Conference Nov. 12-13

• Robyn M. presented a poster about QGreenland-Net.
• Ian N. presented a talk about federated data repositories and the QGreenland-Net project
• Twila M. presented a talk about some of her work with summer schools in Greenland.

Meeting at Asiaq Nov. 14

Met with collaborators from Asiaq and GINR to discuss QGreenland-Net activities and priorities. We also received updates from Asiaq and GINR and talked about ways we could collaborate moving forward.

• Asiaq focuses on towns/settlements. New data updates related to Nuuk and Sisimiut expected in early 2026.
• Idea to create a strategy document about DataONE/QGreenland-Net ecosystem and how Asiaq could fit into that.
• Updates to NunaGIS and NatureMap

Qaagitsi Nov. 14

Public Science Festival with interactive exhibits and handouts

Excursion Nov. 15

Team members Trey, Robyn, Ian, and Angie went on a fishing excursion on Saturday. The fresh fish we caught were prepared for us afterwards!

Robyn M., Trey S., Angie G., and Ian N. did a fishing excursion together with Nuuk Water Taxi on Saturday after GSW. We caught many Arctic Cod and enjoyed a meal prepared with our catch afterwards!

Key takeaways/Common themes

• International Polar Year 5 (IPY-5) (2032-2033) planning is underway. Calls for project endorsements expected in early 2026.
• Concerns about US-based projects and funding ending abruptly. Importance of communicating “evergreen” project artifacts.
• Difficulties with science funding are wider than just the U.S..
• ArcGIS StoryMaps are a commonly used tool for science communication.

Thank you!

• Questions?

• For more, see my blog: https://trey-stafford.github.io/blog/!