Hundreds of researchers are now in Boulder for the Arctic Science Summit Week, an annual gathering that bucks geopolitics and convenes scientists from Russia, China, America and dozens of other countries to cooperate on international research.
Notably missing from the conference, in large numbers at least, is a leader in Arctic science: the US federal government.
Millions of dollars in research funding flows through the National Science Foundation, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Collectively, those funds advance researchers’ understanding of everything from melting sea ice and caribou migration patterns to how quickly the Arctic is warming. Program officers within federal agencies like NSF work closely with scientists to award and administer grants.
This year, a Trump administration executive order prevented NSF staff from attending the event, according to the agency, even though the group is paying for part of the conference. Staff from NASA, which operates critical satellites that help measure sea ice thickness, and NOAA, some of whom work just up the road in Boulder, are not attending in-person, according to several scientists.
“There’s a real loss there in regards to US agencies having awareness of international plans and hearing from international partners,” said Twila Moon, a deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder. “So it’s been a very notable absence.”
The February executive order empowered DOGE, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, to freeze certain agency spending. Those measures included a ban on conference travel without permission, a freeze on employee credit cards and a review of existing grants.
“To ensure compliance with the Executive Order, NSF staff did not attend ASSW,” an agency spokesperson said in an email. “NSF remains committed to working with our partners on groundbreaking and critical Arctic science.”
NASA and NOAA did not respond to requests for comment.
Mark Serreze, the director of National Snow and Ice Data Center, said travel restrictions placed on federal representatives prevented a critical exchange of knowledge.
“That doesn’t happen in a vacuum if they’re sitting in offices somewhere where they can’t be here or even on Zoom, right?” Serreze said.
“And when we lose that, we lose a lot.”
Research cuts, layoffs and Greenland threats loom large
The conference is organized by the International Arctic Science Committee, which brings together representatives from 24 countries to cooperate on Arctic research. The United States typically has an outsize role, but looming over the meeting this year were sweeping cuts to research budgets, layoffs at premier scientific agencies and the Trump administration’s push to acquire Greenland.
“The United States has been a leader in this organization for many years,” said Sandra Starkweather, executive director of the US Arctic Observing Network.
“If we’re suddenly confronted with a very different funding environment, it’s very disorienting to understand how those impacts are going to ripple through the work we’re doing, and we know they’re going to ripple through,” Starkweather said.
In February, the Trump administration began firing probationary employees at scientific agencies like the NSF and NOAA, though federal courts have ordered some of those positions reinstated. In March, hundreds gathered at Boulder’s NOAA offices to protest those layoffs.
Moon is a co-lead editor of the Arctic Report Card, an annual document which takes stock of changes to the region. She said that layoffs affected NOAA staff who work on the report, which is entering its 20th year.
“There’s no question that cuts that have happened on the federal level are now already impacting Arctic research, and also uncertainties about funding are having a big impact too,” Moon said.
Only eight nations are actually in the Arctic Circle, but scientists say changes in the north often affect the entire planet. An Arctic cold outburst, for instance, can lead to dangerous temperatures in the lower 48. Melting sea ice results in sea-level rise in coastal towns.
“What happens in the Arctic, as people have said, doesn’t stay there,” Serreze said. “It affects us all.”
Starkweather’s work improves how federal agencies and researchers collaborate to observe changes in the Arctic, which is challenging given how large and remote it is. She said that layoffs could affect federal scientists who are crucial for those observations.
“Having a break in a data record of a year or two when you need to understand decadal change can be really impactful, when things are changing so swiftly,” she said.
This year’s conference on the University of Colorado campus featured an “Indigenous Pavilion,” a large, teepee-like structure with a fire pit and sweeping views of the Flatirons. During one session, a traditional Mongolian throat-singer transfixed the crowd. Several conference sessions focused on better integrating indigenous knowledge with scientific research. In 2020, representatives from tribal communities penned the first of several letters urging NSF to improve their grants to provide more societal benefits for Arctic residents.
“There are 4 million people who live in the Arctic; there are 500,000 indigenous people who live in the Arctic,” Moon said. “We can’t think of it just as empty space of shrubs and ice and ocean.”
On Wednesday, over 50 scientists gathered in a circle near the pavilion, in a show of support for Greenlanders. Vice President JD Vance is slated to visit Greenland tomorrow with an American delegation, while President Trump has mused about extracting minerals from the territory.
University of Bergen scientist Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu handed out printouts of Greenland’s flag. He said attendees were supporting their colleagues even as politics crashed into the meeting.
“Once you’re in the science session, [the mood] is lifted by the science and excitement of talking about science,” he said.
“And then you come and you read the news and then you realize what’s happening politically. It’s tough.”
