SEARCH Meeting Advances New SEARCH Goals and Implementation Strategy

The SEARCH Science Steering Committee (SSC) and representatives from several government agencies (see sidebar) met 13-15 February 2012 in Washington, D.C. Over the last several months, the SEARCH SSC has developed a new SEARCH vision statement and draft 5-year science goals with input from SEARCH panels and agency representatives. The goal of the SEARCH meeting in February was for the SSC and agencies to further refine the 5-year science goals and develop a plan of action.

The outcomes of the meeting included:

1. Agreement on 5-year science goals that align with agency missions and meet pressing scientific priorities identified through the scientific community and agency information needs.
2. Agreement on a small set of projects to begin implementation of portions of the 5-year goals and showcase interagency collaboration.
3. Agreement on the core elements of an implementation strategy for SEARCH, which will be developed into a detailed plan after the meeting, with input from the broader scientific community and federal and state agencies.
4. Input and recommendations for the U.S. Arctic Observing Coordination Workshop that will include a discussion of an implementation strategy pertaining to the Arctic Observing Network (see: http://www.arcus.org/search/meetings/2012/coordination-workshop).

The SEARCH goals will be distributed to the wider arctic science community in April for input via ArcticInfo.

More information about the meeting, including the agenda, list of attendees, and background material, is available at:
http://www.arcus.org/search/meetings/2012/ssc-february.

For more information about SEARCH activities, visit the SEARCH website at: http://www.arcus.org/search/ or contact Helen Wiggins, ARCUS, at helen [at] arcus.org.