About Us

The mission of the Cooperative Research Units program:
  1. develop the workforce of the future through applied graduate education,
  2. deliver actionable science to cooperating agencies and organizations, and
  3. fulfill the training and technical assistance needs of the cooperators. 

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The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is part of a nation-wide cooperative program, initiated in 1935, to promote research and graduate student training in the ecology and management of fish, wildlife and their habitats. The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit, formed in 1991 by a merger of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit (est. 1950) and ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Cooperative Fishery Research Unit (est. 1978), exists by cooperative agreement among the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Department of Fish and Game (ADFG), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ (UAF) and the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).

The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit sponsors graduate and post-doctoral research projects that range topically from productivity of fish and wildlife populations to effects of contaminants on coastal ecosystems, and geographically from southeast ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ rain forests to the tundra of southwest ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and the North Slope. A Unit Coordinating Committee, composed of ADFG, UAF, USFWS, USGS, and WMI representatives, oversees the mission and program of the Unit.

ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit staff consists of a Unit Leader, four Assistant Leaders, a Fiscal Officer, and an Administrative Assistant. Unit scientists hold positions as research faculty with the Institute of Arctic Biology, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, and have teaching appointments with the Department of Biology and Wildlife or the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Unit is housed in the Laurence Irving Building on the West Ridge of the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ campus in Fairbanks, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥.