The Institute for Circumpolar Health Research grew out of the Arctic Health Research Network, founded in 2005 by Northern community members, doctors, academics, and scientists who believed that advancing the health and wellness of Northern people and communities as an important area of scientific inquiry and public policy. ICHR focuses on specifically on bringing people, facilities, and resources to bear on health-related research in the Northwest Territories, as well as on raising health and wellness issues throughout the region’s communities and the broader circumpolar world.