INTERACT is an infrastructure project under the auspices of SCANNET, a circumarctic network of 33 terrestrial field bases in northern Europe, Russia, US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Scotland. INTERACT specifically seeks to build capacity for research and monitoring in the European Arctic and beyond, and is offering access to numerous research stations through the Transnational Access program.

The project, which is funded by the EU, has a main objective to build capacity for identifying, understanding, predicting and responding to diverse environmental changes throughout the wide environmental and land-use envelopes of the Arctic. This is necessary because the Arctic is so vast and so sparsely populated that environmental observing capacity is limited compared to most other latitudes.

INTERACT is multidisciplinary: together, the stations in INTERACT host thousands of scientists from around the world who work on projects within the fields of glaciology, permafrost, climate, ecology, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling. The INTERACT stations also host and facilitate many international single-discipline networks and aid training by hosting summer schools.

Access to the Arctic

INTERACT station managers and researchers have established partnerships that are developing more efficient networks of sensors to measure changing environmental conditions and the partnerships are also making data storage and accessibility more efficient through a single portal. New communities of researchers are being offered access to Arctic terrestrial infrastructures while local stakeholders as well as major international organisations are involved in interactions with the infrastructures.

The trans-national access component is crucial to building capacity for research in the European Arctic and beyond. INTERACT offers access to 20 stations in the northernmost Europe and the Russian Federation. It will give opportunities to researchers to work in the field in often harsh and remote locations that are generally difficult to access. In return, the input of new researchers will lead to cross fertilisation, comparative measurements at different locations and new research directions at the individual infrastructures.

Join the network

INTERACT further encourages terrestrial infrastructures to join the network as Observer Stations. There are currently 8 of them and they are important parts of the network and new ones are welcome to apply to join INTERACT’s activities, meetings and workshops.