Climate change and modernisation provide both enormous challenges and opportunities for the Arctic. Intense research and assessments document the impacts of human activities and climate change at regional and global scales, and help discover ways to conserve the ecological and cultural resources in the Arctic. Environmental policy and economic development in the Arctic needs to be based on sound knowledge and improved technologies and Arctic Frontiers Science provides an arena for latest findings in environmental and technological research in the region. This part of Arctic Frontiers is organised by independent science committees.