THE ORIGIN STORY

(MOCKUP TEXT) In 2001, nine research stations around the North Atlantic joined forces under the EU's 5th Framework Programme to form SCANNET — a network built to understand global change impacts across the region in real time. When the funding ended in 2004, the station managers chose to keep collaborating anyway, formalising their commitment in a Memorandum of Understanding. New stations joined not because there was money, but because working together simply made sense.

By 2011, the network had grown to 33 stations across 12 countries — spanning all eight Arctic nations. It earned a new name and a new scale of ambition: INTERACT. Three rounds of EU funding later, the network stretches from Iceland to Siberia, from the Scottish Highlands to the Canadian tundra.