Opinion pole: the project gives local populations a voice. Credit: TOM VAN SANT, GEOSPHERE PROJECT/PLANETARY VISIONS/SPL

A no-walls university in the Arctic region sounds like a pretty chilly prospect. But the newly created University of the Arctic plans to warm up interest in topics of common concern across the region.

The project, which was officially launched last month, is a network of 20 universities and other academic institutions from 10 countries surrounding the North Pole, including Russia, the United States, Canada and the Scandinavian countries.

The fledgling university will offer a degree in circumpolar studies, a multidisciplinary course that covers both natural and social sciences. And it offers several exchange programmes, such as North2north, which is based in Finland, and funds the exchange of students and staff between institutions.

It also includes a research network called the Northern Research Forum (NRF), which brings together young researchers with other academics, policy-makers and resource managers to exchange information and define research issues that need to be addressed.

Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, an anthropologist from the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland, who helps to run the NRF, says that arctic researchers have many specific problems in common, such as the arctic environment. But researchers in different arctic countries diverge widely in the resources that they have available.

“Icelanders have money, good infrastructure and zero unemployment, for example,” he says, “but they need more people. Russians have many highly educated people who remain unemployed and a very poor infrastructure.”

The NRF will try to increase co-operation between funding sources and researchers, Ingimundarson adds.

Cynthia Dickson of the Arctic Athabascan Council, which represents around 30,000 people in Arctic North America, says that being part of the University of the Arctic is a lifeline for the population.

“This university allows us to take part in issues of globalization that affect us directly, like climate change and organic pollution,” Dickson says.

→ http://www.urova.fi/home/uarctic