IASC 25 years | Page 39

or social sciences. shops were organized over the years with consid- In 1993, ISIRA was organized as an international erable multinational participation. Annual outputs group advising the IASC Executive Committee on were recorded in annual workshop publications. the development and promotion of international co- Some of the research outputs can be found in the operation in the Russian Arctic. Members were from publications referenced at the end of this chapter. countries with bilateral projects in the Russian Arc- The LOIRA concluded in 2005 after about 10 years tic, and from the Russian side participants included of successful planning and implementation.2,3 a representative from the Academy, one from the Problems of Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Arc- major polar research agency (the Arctic and Antarc- tic was a project development process based on tic Research Institute – AARI), and a key person from workshops in which users (indigenous peoples and the federal bureaucracy. GOSCOMSEVER - the State Committee for Social and Economic Development of the North) defined Initially, ten countries appointed members to this their priority problems, which then should be ad- group. Russia was naturally a key stakeholder in this dressed by scientists working with the users. In to- initiative and several authorities were involved, re- tal, four projects were chosen and work was started. flected in the troika composition of Russian repre- Unfortunately, GOSCOMSEVER was abolished and sentation in the group. succeeded by the Russian Finance Ministry, which ussian policies and regulations with regard to their informed IASC that these projects were no longer northern regions changed rather often, so increas- acceptable. Consequently, one project was trans- ingly field activities had to be based mainly on bi- ferred to the Caribou/Reindeer project (IASC), one lateral collaborations (some of which were very was completed during the summer of 2001, and the successful). As a result, the multinational program last two were merged into one (‘Health and Nutri- idea diminished. However, membership in ISIRA also tion’) and became a significant Russian contribution had value for sharing information through regular to the circumarctic project “Nutrition and Health of updates. Northern Indigenous Peoples (NUHIP): Interactions Information was a basic need both for members of with ethnicity, social status and environment.” the ISIRA group and for anyone else interested in undertaking research in the Russian Arctic. In the Over the years, the activities of ISIRA have changed, beginning, such information was made available from the initial ‘partnership’ role, to bringing scien- on the IASC website. Later, AARI developed a very tists together for project development workshops, good information website as a part of their role as funding advice, etc., to linking related bilateral pro- the IPY Eurasian Sub-Office (see: www.ipyeaso.aari. jects. Because the next generation has other obsta- ru). Hopefully, this website will continue to operate cles to address, changes are being implemented to for many years. assist young scientists. Several projects emerged under this initiative, bot