Cooperative Institute for Alaska Research ("New" CIFAR)
In July 2008, CIFAR was awarded a new 5-year cooperative agreement to conduct ecosystem and environmental research related to Alaska and its associated Arctic regions, including the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, Chukchi/Beaufort Seas, and Arctic Ocean. As the new Alaska regional CI, CIFAR will facilitate a long-term collaboration between NOAA and the University of Alaska within which targeted research, technology, education and outreach can be developed and sustained. CIFAR will play a central role in communication and coordination between NOAA, researchers, management agencies, non-governmental organizations, Alaska communities, and the general public in two-way research, education, and outreach efforts.
CIFAR's research themes are (1) ecosystem studies and forecasting; (2) coastal hazards; and (3) climate change and variability; these themes will address all four NOAA research missions. Research in all three themes will contribute to improving NOAA's prediction and forecasting abilities in the Alaska region, throughout the nation, and internationally. CIFAR's education and outreach efforts will provide crosscutting NOAA human resources development and regional capacity building needed for increasing the resiliency of all Alaska residents in the face of unprecedented change.
Research projects are funded through CIFAR primarily in response to an announcement of opportunity, or as a result of
NOAA's interest in funding an individual project.
The Russian-American Long-term Census of
the Arctic (RUSALCA) projects were competitively awarded after CIFAR released an announcement of opportunity to the arctic
science community and projects were selected through peer review by an external panel of experts.
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Cooperative Institute For Alaska Research
