The Université Laval is located in Québec City, Canada. Université Laval (ULaval) has a long- lasting tradition for academic excellence and benefits from a well-established infrastructure for Arctic research. Since the 1960's, ULaval has continuously invested in Northern research supporting the efforts of about 50 of its professors and hundreds of students in different departments. ULaval operates the icebreaking research vessel CCGS AMUNDSEN and hosts the Centre d'études nordiques (CEN: Centre for Northern Studies) which is one of North America's leading research centers of excellence for the study of high latitude climate, landscapes, aquatic environments, vegetation and wildlife. It focuses on three research themes: (1) structure and function of geosystems and ecosystems across the ecozones of eastern Canada; (2) evolution of these systems in the context of climate change and accelerated development; (3) vulnerability and risks associated with environmental change and adaptation strategies.
ArcticNet is a network center of excellence, based at ULaval that brings together scientists and managers in the fields natural, health and social sciences with their partners from Inuit organizations, northern communities, federal and provincial agencies and the private sector to study of the impacts of climate change and modernization in the coastal Canadian Arctic. Over 110 ArcticNet scientists from 27 Canadian universities and 5 Federal departments collaborate with research teams from around the world, spearheading the on-going revitalization of Canada's scientific role in the Arctic. ArcticNet also contributes to the Polar Data Catalogue where oceanographic data from the Canadian Arctic are accessible. The Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments is based at the Public Health Research Unit of ULaval medical research center Nasivvik (Inuktitut for "vantage point") participates in the Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments (ACADRE) of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The center focuses on contaminants in the northern environment and in the food chain and their impacts on health. It investigates the direct and indirect effects of the changing northern climate on individual and community health and on relationships with chronic diseases among Inuit populations. ULaval provides a broad spectrum of laboratories for advanced environmental and data analysis, including separate facilities for research in arctic plankton ecology, polar molecular oceanography, polar marine and freshwater ecology, arctic climatology, arctic paleo-ecology, northern vegetation ecology, northern fish genomics, northern wildlife ecology, northern seas biogeochemistry, ocean gas flux processes.
Main tasks in the project
In the Beaufort Sea area, Nunataryuk will partner with ULaval (M. Allard, G. Doré) in Canada. ULaval with the Takuvik project and CNRS will be a driving force behind the operations of WP4 and will support the work of WP6 through a partnership with the Centre d’Etudes Nordiques (CEN). ULaval will also contribute in-kind support for the outreach activities planned in WP10. Nunataryuk includes leading experts in the field of permafrost engineering research, specifically in its relation to coastal infrastructure. ULaval has worked extensively over the past decades on the vulnerability of infrastructure built on permafrost and is one of the leading experts worldwide on these issues.
