Turn of the Tide
The annual Arctic Frontiers conference will take place in Tromsø from february 2nd to february 5th 2026, with this year’s theme being « Turn of the Tide ». This conference will be organized around 7 scientific themes (cf. programme).
The Arctic Frontiers conference is a forum that encourages dialogue between the scientific, governmental and industrial sectors in the Arctic. It aims at fostering new connections between nations, generations and ethnic groups in a pan-arctic perspective.
Side Event Worskhop
On February 4th, 2026, the French Institute in Norway in partnership with the Research Council of Norway organizes a workshop during the 2026 Arctic Frontiers conference entitled: Arctic Ocean: New Challenges, New Frontiers, and the Role of Science Diplomacy in Sustainable Cooperation. It’s the second time in a row that the Institute gets a side event proposition approved in a very competitive context. This year, the idea of the workshop is to discuss explore how global governance can regulate access to the Arctic Ocean resources and services while protecting and studying marine ecosystems. In other words, how to deal with Arctic Ocean emergence of new frontiers while ensuring scientific cooperation in a sustainable way. This workshop has been placed under the patronage of the Norwegian and the French National Commissions for UNESCO. This year, the panel discussion will have many speakers from diverse Arctic influent institutions. Among them, Vito De Lucia, Norwegian Center for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS), project “Future Arctic Law and Governance”, Philippe Archambault, Université Laval (ULaval) / TAKUVIK, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Canada’s New Arctic Frontier, Gosia Smieszek-Rice, Deputy Secretary, AMAP working group, Sarah Marie Strand, Executive Director of APECS Working for the Arctic Ocean of the future, Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), Steeve Comeau and Héloïse Caraty, (Institut de la mer, Sorbonne university, French case study, Blue Carbon in the Arctic: Understanding the Role of Established and Emerging Ecosystems and Keith Larson, Arctic center at Umea university and European Polar Coordination Office (EPCO). More information on Arctic Frontiers website!