On 24-25 October Tomsk State University hosted the workshop “Impact of climate change on Siberia: detecting, understanding and predicting Siberian environmental change and its societal consequences”. Yugra State University was represented by the head of UNESCO Chair “Environmental Dynamics and Global Climate Change” Elena Lapshina.

Specific aims of the workshop were:

• to gather experts on various aspects of environmental change related to Siberia and create a community of such experts;
• to develop a roadmap for research to create an understanding of changes in environment and resources in Siberia and their societal consequences;
• to make a coherent picture of past, current and proposed research in Siberia more accessible to the Russian and global communities including policy makers and educators at various levels;
• to stimulate on-going knowledge exchange and capacity building in Siberia by launching a new network: the “Siberian Environmental Change Network” (SecNet).

SecNet is a new international consortium for understanding and predicting societally-relevant changes in Siberia in a global context. Following the networks launch, it will now be developed as an open community of universities, research institutes and other organizations that are united by a common goal to support sustainable development of the North, including the Arctic. By accumulating experience and knowledge on Siberian environments and society, it aims to understand and predict societally important changes so that negative anthropogenic consequences can be minimized and positive changes can be exploited. SecNet’s strategy is to link world-class international and Russian institutes researching Siberia; Link multiple disciplines and approaches; provide a “one-stop-shop” for information on Siberia; and communicate knowledge to educators, researchers, policy-makers and the public.