The institute was created in 1945 by a Canadian act of Parliament as a non-profit membership organization, and also incorporated in the state of New York.
[1] The idea of the institute began in the early 1940s when a group of Canadians discussed ways that Canada could increase administrative, scientific and technical expertise in the Arctic.
[4] Dr. Maribeth Murray, a social scientist and leading arctic researcher, is the current executive director of the institute, appointed in 2013 and reappointed in 2018.
The focus of the Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS) database is references for publications and research projects about northern Canada.
The journal publishes scholarly articles, book reviews, and notable people on all topics related to the polar and subpolar regions of the world.