NationTalk: Members of the Inuit Research Network from across Inuit Nunangat are meeting in-person for the first time this week to build a foundation from which they will coordinate and support health research by, and for, Inuit.

The IRN, which received $6.4 million over three years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2022, supports the implementation of the National Inuit Strategy on Research by advancing Inuit participation in research and research governance. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is the IRN’s secretariat.

This week, representatives from the four regions of Inuit Nunangat will meet in Inuvik to evaluate year one of the program and discuss a vision and structure for the network going forward to ensure long-term, sustainable support for community-based researchers and projects.

As part of their meeting, the IRN team plans to visit several research projects in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region including erosion monitoring in Tuktoyaktuk. These types of projects, unfolding across Inuit Nunangat, stand to benefit from the broad regional nature of the IRN, the local knowledge and expertise that will be shared, and the funding that will flow through it.

The IRN also benefits all Canadians by ensuring the research conducted within Inuit Nunangat – which comprises 40 per cent of Canada’s land area, 72 per cent of its coastline and is undergoing rapid social and environmental change – is done in accordance with the National Inuit Strategy on Research.

For more information, contact:

media@itk.ca