In conjunction with the Northwest Arctic Borough, the Chukchi Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks organized the Workshop on Improving Local Participation in Research in Northwest Alaska. The National Science Foundation funded the workshop in its continuing effort to improve relations between researchers and local residents. The workshop occurred in Kotzebue April 2-4, 2013.

The workshop brought together more than 60 people from 11 Northwest Arctic villages, state and federal agencies, researchers, co-management groups, and private companies doing work in the region. The focus of the workshop was to identify research priorities of Northwest Alaska residents, identify best practices for involving locals in research, and identify research principles for the region. The format included a variety of methods to encourage interaction among the participants including presentations, panels, group discussions, and breakout groups. A workshop notebook provided information about previous similar workshops in the region, information about approved research principles and a paper describing the similarities and differences between western science and traditional knowledge.

The first part of the workshop involved several panels that provided background information. The first panel addressed how science and local and traditional knowledge (LTK) can work together. The second two panels addressed best practices for participatory research with an emphasis on projects in Bristol Bay, the North Slope Borough, the Kawerak region, and Northwest Alaska. The panelists described useful methods to involve local residents in research, and several examples involved locally-driven research by tribal organizations. Other sessions addressed research principles, protection of LTK and opportunities for interactive discussions on research principles, best practices and research priorities.

 The workshop produced several outcomes. First, the participants identified research needs for Northwest Alaska. The topics included a wide range of ideas that the group organized into 4 major categories: People, environment, development, and animals. Some of the ideas included documenting subsistence and Iñupiaq laws, erosion, effects of climate change, and compiling baseline data in a single place for each village. During an exercise to prioritize future research, several people cautioned against placing too much weight on the outcome of this exercise. They noted that many of the topics were interconnected, and subjects that were not rated highly could still be very important.

A second outcome of the workshop involved documentation of best practices for conducting research. The ideas were organized under 4 topic areas: Communication, local benefits, research design, and methodology. Again, a prioritization exercise gave a sense of what best practices are most important.

 The third and fourth outcomes involve recommendations of a workgroup established at the April workshop. At its November 5-6, 2013 meeting in Kotzebue, the workgroup recommended establishment of a Northwest Arctic research panel which would provide communication between villages and researchers. It also finalized research principles for Northwest Alaska for further consideration by communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough. Since the initial workshop summary was distributed, several organizations outside of the Borough have expressed interest in using the research principles.