Structure and History of ACCAP
ACCAP is part of the NOAA Climate Program Office
ACCAP is one of several Climate Adaptation Partnerships Program Formerly known as the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program (CAP/RISA) teams within the Climate and Societal Interactions Division of NOAA’s Climate Program Office.
CAP supports regional research teams across the U.S. to better understand, plan for, and respond to multiple complex hazards, such as flooding, water shortages, wildfires, and extreme weather events. These events directly impact the health, housing, safety, business development, and wealth of communities. CAP teams work to address community needs by providing relevant scientific expertise and resources. These teams partner with multiple private and public sector organizations across their regions including local government agencies, utilities, ports, small and medium-sized businesses, rural town and city planners, regional councils of government, among others.
History of ACCAP
ACCAP has been funded since August 2006 by 5-year, competitive NOAA research grants. Over the years, the program has focused on climate impacts in the transportation sector with a focus on sea ice, changing seasonality and Alaska Native rural food systems. Extreme events and building resilience in rural communities to climate impacts have been consistent themes of ACCAP for over a decade.
Daniel White, John Walsh and Craig Gerlach were the principal investigators on the original award. In 2012, Sarah Trainor transitioned from program coordinator to principal investigator, a role she still holds today. Walsh served beside Trainor as PI, co-investigator and several other leadership roles until his retirement in 2023. Nathan Kettle joined the leadership team in 2017 and currently acts as co-director. The program has had many other influential researchers and staff over the years. Visit the people page to see a complete list of ACCAP team members and alumni.
ACCAP is housed at the International Arctic Research Center
ACCAP is housed at the International Arctic Research Center on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha' campus. IARC’s purpose is to understand the Arctic to make a difference.