Established in 2018, the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network (IFKN), a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Coordination Network (OPP-1745499, ifkn.org), has created connections among Indigenous and allied leaders, citizens, and scholars focused on research and community capacity related to food sovereignty and resilience in the Arctic and US Southwest. While in-person Network meetings are on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, IFKN and researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado Boulder were awarded a NSF RAPID COVID-19 grant, “Impact of COVID-19 on Food Access in Indigenous Communities in the Arctic and U.S. Southwest: A Comparative Landscape Analysis,” from the Office of Polar Programs (OPP-2035161; $197,535). A key component of this one-year project is a COVID-19 research advisory committee composed of members of IFKN who will work with the research team to co-develop the research design, process, and outputs to focus on concerns and questions of Indigenous Peoples from both regions about the impacts of COVID-19 on food security and sovereignty.

Stephanie Carroll, Native Nations Institute (NNI) Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Public Health, leads the project with co-investigators Mary Beth Jäger, NNI Research Analyst, and Dan Ferguson, Director for the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, at the University of Arizona, and in collaboration with Noor Johnson, Research Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.