Dear partners,

Japan Arctic Research Network Center (J-ARC Net) was launched in April 2016 as a platform for collaboration between three research organizations: Hokkaido University Arctic Research Center (HU ARC) as the core organization, the Arctic Environment Research Center of the National Institute of Polar Research, and Institute of Arctic Climate and Environment Research (IACE) of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). It was funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)’s program “Joint Usage / Research Center”.

Since then, J-ARC Net has developed a wide range of activities aimed at supporting the researcher community and public-private-academic partnerships in the Arctic-related fields, such as offering competitive grants for collaborative studies, lecture series “Introduction to Arctic studies”, winter schools, Arctic open seminars and symposiums, introductory courses on the Arctic for citizens (community outreach courses) etc. J-ARC Net ends in March 2022.

During its funding period over 1500 researchers from Japan and other countries have participated in J-ARC Net-supported collaborative studies. The Arctic open seminars have gathered over 1000 participants, and its newsletter readership has exceeded 700. We have managed to considerably expand the scope of the Arctic-related research and partnerships.

We hope that the J-ARC Net legacy will provide new opportunities and will lead to new developments in the future. Thank you for your support and cooperation.

Looking forward to continuing close and fruitful cooperation with you,

Natsuhiko Otsuka, Dr.

Deputy Director of Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University