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In addition to directing financial support for research, it maintains a database of Arctic data sets known as the Polar Data Catalogue, and it co-ordinates expensive ship-time research on Canada’s only research icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen.

(ArcticNet) has not only been useful it has been outstanding… It’s really revolutionized how we do collaborative research in the North.

“(ArcticNet) has not only been useful, it has been outstanding,” said David Barber, a professor in the department of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba who holds a Canada Research Chair in Arctic system science. “It’s really revolutionized how we do collaborative research in the North.”

Duncan, reached Monday in Quebec City where she was announcing nearly $330-million in new Canadian Foundation for Innovation grants for research, could not speak specifically to the future of ArcticNet though she acknowledged there have been discussions about the federal government’s long-term role for Arctic research.

“We’re committed to our scientists, our science and delivering real change. I think that’s what we’ve done this past year,” Duncan said. “It’s a government that is committed to research and evidence-based policy-making.”

Barber and other researchers got together about eight months ago in Winnipeg to talk about ArcticNet’s future.

“What do we do? How do we move forward as a community? How do we look to find a replacement for the functionality that is ArcticNet? And we’re struggling with it because there really is no logical avenue for which to move forward,” Barber said in a telephone interview Friday. “There’s no program we can write an application for that will replace it. There needs to be some kind of movement at the federal level.”