In 2002, the long-term international and multidiscipli-nary programme TUNU was launched, led by Jørgen S. Christiansen (University of Tromsø, Norway), later renamed TEAM-Fish: TUNU Euro-Arctic Marine Fishes. Jørgen (of Inuit origin himself) explains that the Inuit term ’TUNU’ is etymologically ambiguous in modern Greenlandic - geographically it refers to East Greenland and, anatomically, to its backbone. Both meanings are adopted, as TUNU research activities began in Northeast Greenland, with the ambition to grow into a scientific backbone in the study of Euro-Arctic fishes at large. TEAM-Fish was part of the International Polar Year (IPY, 2006-2008), of Evolution and Adaptation in the Antarctic - The Response of Life to Change (EBA), and is currently part of the new SCAR programme Antarctic Thresholds - Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation (AnT-ERA).
