Over 80 members of INTAROS came together in Helsinki from 9-12 January for the 2018 General Assembly. Collaborators discussed progress to date as well as plans for the future. The meeting  included the Steering Committee meeting, Advisory Panel meeting, and workshops related to the individual work packages.

During the week-long meeting hosted in Helsinki by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, all elements of the INTAROS project were discussed including the following themes:

• Requirements, strategy and collaboration in establishing a Pan-Arctic observation system,
• Existing observing systems. Results of the ongoing survey status of various observing systems and plans for the next period,
• Status and plans of field work under INTAROS and coordination with other projects,
• Results of work on Community Based Observing in the first year and plan for the next period,
• Data integration and management, status after the first year and plan for the next period,
• Applications towards stakeholders, plans for the case studies,
• Dissemination and outreach activities.

There was also a series of presentations by collaborating institutes:

• The EU Arctic Cluster, collaboration between 8 EU-funded projects  - Kristina Baer, AWI;
• Developing EuroArgo system for the Polar regions - Grigor Obolensky, EuroArgo;
• Collaboration with AtlantOS on marine data management - Erik Buch, EuroGOOS;
• Progress reports from Blue Action and APPLICATE -TBC;
• European Space Agency’s contribution to Arctic observing systems – updated information on present and planned activities  - Ola Graabak, ESA;
• The Polar Thematic Exploration Platform – demonstration of present capacities and plan for further work -  Andrew Fleming, BAS;
• Contribution from China to INTAROS and status of GEOCRI Yubao Qiu, RADI;
• Status of Russian participation in INTAROS -  Leonid Bobylev, NIERS.

More information and updates to follow in the coming days.