The Stefansson Arctic Institute (SAI), established in 1998 and located in Akureyri, Iceland, is an independent governmental research institute within the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources. It bears the name of arctic explorer and anthropologist Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (1879-1962). 

The SAI takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human-environment relations in the Circumpolar Arctic. Particular emphasis is on research and scientific assessments concerning economic systems and human development, marine-resource governance, political ecology of agricultural systems, and the impacts of and adaptation to past and present climate change.  

Key words: #sustainable #development #social #science #international #projects

 Main Arctic projects

• Arctic Human Development Report (ADHR) I
  
• Arctic Human Development Report (ADHR) II
  
• Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) I & II
  
• Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures
  
• Arcitc Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH)
  
• NUNATARYUK
  
• Reflections of Change: The Natural World in Literary and Historical Sources from Iceland ca AD 800 to 1800 (ICECHANGE)
  
• The Mývatn District of Iceland: Sustainability, Environment and Change ca. AD 1700 to 1950 (MYSEAC)
  

 Other projects

• Fishernet – Fishing Cultural Heritage Network (a collaborative project of fishing nations in Europe)
• The Friendly Arctic Exhibition about Vilhjálmur Stefansson 
• The Arctic Governance Project

Main publications and reports

• Arctic Human Development Report, Volume I (2004)
• Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages, Volume II (2014)
• Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) Project (2010)
• Arctic Social Indicators – ASI: Implementation (2014)

Website

• The website is www.svs.is/en

Director

 Contact person