The University of the Arctic's Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy (IACP; http://iacp.dartmouth.edu/), a collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was established in 2008 and is located at the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth. The mission of IACP is to explore critical policy issues facing citizens of the circumpolar North.

In December 2008, IACP held a three-day conference on the subject of arctic climate change and security policy. The meeting, attended by scientists, policymakers, and representatives from indigenous communities, resulted in a report on the accelerating pace of climate change and increasing competition for resources and territorial claims that are creating pressures on the region. Arctic Climate Change and Security Policy Conference: Final Report and Findings was released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a conference partner.

In October 2009, IACP sponsored similar discussions, attended by military and government officials, on the Arctic Council's Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA). A draft report will be available in February 2010.

IACP has plans to offer executive training and education to increase northern capacity to respond to the human dimensions of climate change. IACP is also collaborating with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth to offer entrepreneurial educational programs for those whose livelihoods and way-of-life are altered by environmental change and, more generally, for the economic development of indigenous enterprises.