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Tarah Wright Collaborator (WP6) I have been a faculty member at Dalhousie University since 2001 and am currently a Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the Director of the Education for Sustainability Research Group. My research program over the past two decades has been highly collaborative and multidisciplinary. It has incorporated an interdisciplinary range of fields related to environmental education, nature exposure, sustainability science, the role of the Arts in creating a sustainable future, all with a focus on the emerging field of education for sustainable development (ESD). My research is guided by critical theory, which focuses on critique and transformation in inquiry, allows values and ethics to guide the development and execution of research, and sees researchers in the role of advocates or activists. I situate all of my work within a constructivist paradigm, meaning that my research findings are seen as a snapshot of one of several truths within a particular timeframe. Methodologically, the majority of my work employs a grounded-theory approach where theoretical insights come from the inductive analysis of data rather than in hypotheses. My research also relies on a number of theoretical approaches. First, my research is guided by community based social marketing (CBSM) from within the field of environmental psychology. CBSM is an approach to change management that maintains that in order to understand how to increase environmentally-positive behaviours, we must first understand the demographic we are studying, including the perceived barriers and benefits specific to the population. Further, cultures and structures are shaped by complex, often contrasting belief systems. Understanding a population or community’s nature is essential to developing contextually appropriate change strategies. As such, my research requires a working knowledge of change management and organizational behavior theory. Although I have held major administrative positions at the university since 2001 (Director of Environmental Programs, and Associate Director in the College of Sustainability), my research program has remained active and continues to expand.

Dalhousie University / Western University Matthew Stackhouse Research Assistant (WP6) Matthew Stackhouse is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. His research expertise includes quantitative methods, longitudinal data analysis, data reduction techniques, health inequality, and behaviour and lifestyle research. He is currently working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Western Ontario and Dalhousie University on the FOCI Work Package Perceptions of Climate Change and Social Futures. Using survey data from this project, he is lead author on a project titled “Perceptions of Local Environment Change and Ecological Habitus” (currently under revisions with Environmental Sociology ) and is lead author on a new study exploring perceptions of local environment change and ecologically supportive behaviours.

INTEGRATION Supporting integration and knowledge mobilization between stakeholders Although each WP identifies links with other WPs, four additional projects are working to strengthen, consolidate and optimize FOCI integration. Each of these integration work package (IWP) projects are undertaking activities to coordinate elements of FOCI WPs, ensuring integration of overarching FOCI objectives and research questions into WP research designs, and to coordinate and synthesize knowledge mobilization outputs identifying infrastructure designs that can enhance the capacity of ocean industries and coastal communities to safely, sustainably, and inclusively navigate climate, ocean and social-ecological change. FORESIGHTING SUSTAINABLE COASTAL COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURES (IWP1) LEVERAGING EXISTING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE FOR FOCI OUTREACH & DISSEMINATION (IWP2) SUSTAINABLE COASTAL ATLANTIC CANADA DIALOGUES (IWP3) ARTISTIC INFRASTRUCTURE FOR NAVIGATING OCEAN AND COASTAL COMMUNITY CHANGE (IWP4)

Memorial University Bruna Souza de Brito Research Assistant (WP7) More to come.

PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE (WP6) FOCI’s Work Package on ‘Perceptions of Climate Change and Social Futures’ examines the multiple, and potentially divergent, social perceptions of climate change among the public, experts, media, and policy network actors across Atlantic Canada. It analyses social perceptions of climate change and builds social infrastructure by assessing: i) regional impacts of climate change, ii) responses, in terms of mitigation and adaption; and iii) capacity to respond to changes. Improving our understanding of the social perceptions of climate change in these different spheres helps innovate governance infrastructures that can better navigate futures of climate change and social-ecological instability. The overall objective is to build citizen engagement and policy network infrastructure to help communities grapple with climate change and rapidly evolving ecosystems. MEET THE TEAM Howard Ramos Co-Lead Tarah Wright Collaborator Karen Foster Co-Lead Mark Stoddart Co-Investigator Tuomas Ylä-Antilla Co-Investigator HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL (HQP) Laura Funke Research Assistant 2022-24 Matthew Stackhouse Research Assistant 2021-23 Gillian Kerr Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-21 Christine Taylhardat Research Assistant 2023-25 Rachel McLay Research Assistant 2020-24 Yixi Yang Research Assistant 2021-24 Brenna Sobanski Research Assistant 2020-21 Gwyneth Cin Yung Yeung Research Assistant 2022-23 OUR PARTNERS

SEARCH AND RESCUE IN REMOTE REGIONS (WP3) The Search and Rescue (SAR) system in Canada is both complex and effective, saving thousands of lives each year. FOCI’s Work Package on ‘Search and Rescue in Remote Regions’ informs on the effectiveness of SAR infrastructure in a context of change. Coastal regions of eastern Canada and the Arctic gateway are seeing increases in ship traffic every year—a trend that is expected to continue. This region is also known for its harsh and unpredictable conditions, which increase the risk to vessels and their passengers and crew. When SAR is required to assist with maritime emergencies, a range of decisions have to be made regarding deployment of assets and operational plans. Different tactical SAR planning models are used but to date, strategic planning models for examining overall system performance and the factors which most affect system performance have been limited in scope. Using mixed methods of analyzing and modelling existing data and integrating community-based research and engagement methods, the objective of this work package is to advance the state-of-the-art in strategic SAR modelling through an infrastructure lens. MEET THE TEAM Robert Brown Lead David Molyneux Co-Investigator Floris Goerlandt Co-Investigator Ronald Pelot Co-Investigator Peter Kikkert Co-Investigator P. Whitney Lackenbauer Co-Investigator HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL (HQP) Mohannad AlRefai Co-op Student (Undergraduate) 2024 Evan Lane Master's Student Current Mohammad Awad Co-op Student (Undergraduate) 2025 (Position Complete) Mohammad Zarrin Mehr Master's Student Alumni Aya Khaled Ibrahim Co-op Student (Undergraduate) 2020 Samia Nusrat Co-op Student (Undergraduate) 2024 Yang Ji Master's Student Current OUR PARTNERS

Carissa Brown Co-investigator (WP2) Dr. Carissa Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Memorial University and has 18 years experience conducting experimental and observational studies in Canadian forest ecosystems. C. Brown is the lead of the Northern EDGE Lab, where her research group focuses on the impact of climate change on plant species across their distributions. She does this primarily in forest ecosystems, studying both understory plant and tree populations and communities, typically at the edge of their range. She combines field experimentation and observational studies to answer questions related to biodiversity and land-use change, disturbance, abiotic characteristics, and biotic interactions, analyzing these data using tools such as mixed-effect modeling, Bayesian approaches, and multivariate statistics. Her ongoing research programs include a large-scale field experiment distributed across Newfoundland testing the ability of native temperate tree species of eastern North America to expand their distributions into boreal forest stands under climate change. Previous research in Canada’s subarctic treeline has involved propagating and planting out tree seedlings across a natural field experiment. Her research funding and collaborations span Federal (NSERC, Parks Canada), Provincial (Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador), and international (International Arctic Science Committee) bodies. She has published 21 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals ranging from Canadian Journal of Forest Research to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. C. Brown’s research has been featured in the journals Nature and Science, and she has been a guest on regional CBC radio programs as well as the national science program ‘Quirks and Quarks’.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Sara Langer-Smith Research Assistant (WP7) To learn more about Sara Langer - Rural Resilience

Memorial University Yousra Abdelhady Master's Student (WP1) Yousra is pursuing another master’s degree in Ocean and Naval Architecture Engineering at Memorial University. Her thesis focuses on the Safety of Fishing Vessels, specifically on the effect of length to breadth ratio on dynamic stability. She is a Naval Architect with over a decade of international experience in the shipbuilding industry. She has worked in Canada, Netherlands, and Egypt, covering various aspects of naval architecture, project management, production, and modelling. Her top competencies are multitasking, ship stability and weight distribution. She holds a bachelor and master’s degrees in Naval Architecture from Alexandria University in Egypt, as well as a PMP certification and a train of trainer credential. She is also a Techwomen fellow, and a registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia and Alberta. Besides her technical expertise, she is also an active volunteer for SNAME, serving as an Alternate Functional Vice President for Knowledge management and the social media and Events Chair for SNAME Canadian Atlantic Section. She is also part of the communication team of Maritech conference 2024. Moreover, she has mentored and facilitated various hands-on workshops for different age groups.

Memorial University Pierrette Janes-Bourque Master's Student (WP2) Pierrette Janes (she/her) is a Master’s of Science in Geography student at Memorial University’s campus in St. John’s, NL, and is co-supervised by Dr. Carissa Brown and Dr. Joel Finnis. Pierrette is from the beautiful, nature-filled province of New Brunswick where she spent most of her childhood exploring local forests. After completing her Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership from the University of New Brunswick, Pierrette’s interest in forests led her to a position as Stewardship Coordinator for the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, working closely with local conservationists to protect, monitor and restore some of New Brunswick’s unique natural spaces. Pierrette’s research with FOCI will focus on climate smart trees and urban forests as a potential nature-based climate solutions in coastal communities in Newfoundland.

Doug Smith Co-investigator (IWP1) Assistant Professor Doug Smith of Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied. Science researches complex socio-technical systems. He has developed an approach called the process monitoring and performance measurement (PMPM) method for investigating these systems. The PMPM method provides insights into the how complex systems function by modeling the interactions between people, organizations, and technologies. Smith is an investigator in IWP1.

Madeleine Gustavsson Collaborator (WP9) Dr Madeleine Gustavsson is a Researcher at Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research in Trondheim, Norway. Before joining Ruralis, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (UK), holding an Economic and Social Research Council New Investigator fellowship, researching the changing lives of women in small-scale fishing families in the UK and Newfoundland. As part of the Women in Fisheries project, Madeleine visited Memorial University in 2018 as a visiting postdoctoral fellow where she also got to learn about the Newfoundland fishery and collect data with women in Newfoundland fishing families. Previous to this, Madeleine conducted research on fishing cultures – including intergenerational and gendered dimension – in North Wales, UK which led here to secure PhD in Human Geography at the University of Liverpool. In addition to publishing on the topics of fisheries, gender and Blue Justice, Madeleine has co-edited the book ‘Researching People and the Sea’ published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. More broadly, her research focuses on marine, coastal and rural issues drawing on social science methods to understand the lifeworlds of people living and working with the sea. Dr Gustavsson will collaborate with the lead and postdoctoral fellow of FOCI’s Work package 9.3.