The fifth biennial North American Carbon Program (NACP) PI meeting (PIM5) was convened in Washington D.C. from January 26 to 29, 2015.  Over 370 participants and speakers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico attended this event which included 77 talks and 254 posters. Several break-out group discussions were also convened to focus on specific science and policy themes of the meeting.

An international planning committee representing scientists and governmental program managers from all 3 NACP nations organized this gathering which was supported by USGCRP's Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group/US Carbon Cycle Science Program. Participants primarily comprised AmeriFlux, Fluxnet, NACP, CarboNA principal investigators, researchers & students; those interested in the carbon cycle of North America & adjacent coastal waters; scientists and government managers associated with US, Canadian, and Mexican Carbon Programs; social scientists, policy makers, stakeholders; and others seeking to improve the scientific basis of decision making.

Preceded by an NACP data Management Practices workshop for Early Career Scientistsand followed by a 1.5 days long Amerflux PI meeting, PIM5 was successfull in updating the NACP stakeholders on the progress of research in North American carbon cycle science and related science and science-policy advances, and their remaining needs and opportunities. Invited speakers included Rick Duke and Nathan Hultman from CEQ (White House), Dennis Paradine (British Columbia Ministry of the Environment), Emily Pidgeon (Conservation International), Randy Olson (Filmmaker), Rick Spinrad (NOAA CHIEF SCIENTIST), Werner Kurz (Canadian Forest Service), Marcia McNutt (Science Magazine), Steve Running (University of Montana), Margaret Torn (LBNL), Thomas Armstrong (formerly OSTP/USGCRP/DOI), Rachel McCormick (Canadian Embassy), federal and community scientists, funders and practitioners from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. A side meeting of CarboNA was also convened by CCIWG co-chair Nancy Cavallaro (USDA-NIFA) and Catherine St. Marie (Canadian Forest Service).

Some of the sessions described above are listed below, with links to their respective presentations. For the entire list of sessions and publishable presentation slides, please follow this link.  For an overview of the prior meeting, see this article. Also see this related video and blog post focused on the communication session.