ISAC was initiated in 2003 by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB) following the SEARCH Open Science Meeting in Seattle in October 2003. That conference brought together over 440 researchers from around the world to present and discuss progress in research on rapid environmental change in the Arctic. At an international implementation meeting participants requested that IASC and AOSB form the International Study of Arctic Change Interim Science Planning Group (ISPG) and in January 2005 the ISPG published the ISAC Science Overview Document. This formed the basis for the further development of the ISAC Science Program. The ISAC International Program Office is co-located with the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden.
