Delivering research in partnership with Greenland
The Arctic is warming three to four times faster than the global average. This warming could push crucial systems like the Greenland ice sheet and the subpolar gyre ocean circulation past a ‘tipping point’ – a threshold for irreversible change. If these collapse, it would impact the local environment, weather, wildlife and location of vital fish stocks, and prompt devastating consequences for global sea levels and weather patterns. Yet, we currently have very limited data on when, how, or whether these events will happen.
The Forecasting Tipping Points programme is uniting teams of British, Greenlandic and international climate experts with a singular goal: creating an early warning system for these critical climate systems.
A key part of this work is developing and deploying innovative new sensing systems to monitor the Greenland ice sheet, its interface with the ocean, and the atmosphere. Partnership and co-design with Naalakkersuisut and Greenlandic communities and research institutions is therefore vital to its success.
How it works in practice
- Active governance: We are establishing an Oversight Committee with strong Greenlandic representation to govern existing projects and co-design the scope of future research calls.
- Local leadership: We have hired Greenland-based team members to act as a bridge between international scientific teams and local communities, ensuring engagement is respectful and relevant.
- Data sovereignty: Through co-design with Greenlandic institutions, we are developing processes so that data collected in Greenland can be stored, owned, and accessible by Greenlandic researchers long after this programme ends.
- Community first: From permitting best-practice guides to climate education initiatives, we are reducing the burden on local communities and building capacity.
- Strategic alignment: Our work aligns directly with Greenland’s National Research Strategy (2022-2030) and adheres to the Circumpolar Inuit Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement.
"Sarah and I built our careers in medical physics, where you don't just build a tool; you listen carefully to patients and doctors to ensure it's truly useful. We're bringing that exact mindset to monitoring the planet's health. By working in partnership and listening to local expertise in Greenland, our goal is to create an early warning system that provides genuinely useful information for decision-making, for Greenland and the rest of the world."
Gemma Bale
Programme Director
Funded projects taking place in Greenland
Meet the teams of scientists testing new sensing systems to monitor the Greenland ice sheet, its interface with the ocean, and the atmosphere.
CosmicRay: Ice sheet instability monitoring using distributed cosmic ray sensors
Patrick Stowell, University of Sheffield
GAMB2LE: Greenland Automated Mass Balance and Boundary Layer Experiment
Ryan Reynolds Neely III, Sarah Barr + Heather Guy, University of Leeds and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science
ICEBERG: Integrated Cryosphere Environmental Baseline Exploration and Remote Geosensing
Peter J. Christopher, Sal La Cavera III, Connor Taylor + Benjamin Newsome-Chandler, Ryme; David Grys, Innotronics
GIANT: Greenland Ice sheet to Atlantic tipping points from ice loss
Kelly Hogan, British Antarctic Survey
TUNUMI SILASIORFIIT
Anders Læsøe, ASIAQ
G-PREWS: Greenland Peripheral Glacier Response and Early Warning System
Larissa Nora van der Laan, University of Copenhagen
AEROSTATS: Aerial Experimental Remote sensing of Ocean Salinity, heat, advection and Thermohaline Shifts
Christine Gommenginger, National Oceanography Centre
GRuMPS: Greenland Runoff Monitoring from Passive Seismology
Stephen Livingstone, The University of Sheffield
Arctic DronePort
Mathieu Johnsson, Marble
OptimISM: A next-generation framework for Ice Sheet Modelling
Trystan Surawy-Stepney, University of Leeds