The Arctic Frontiers conference gathers each year many key voices of science, policy, business, and local Arctic communities, to rapidly turn knowledge into actions. Hence, the French Institute in Norway chose to actively take part into the event to represent France and support its young researchers!
At a glance, French Institute’s involvement:
- Co-organization of a Workshop side-event in partnership with the Research Council of Norway entitled: “Arctic Ocean: New Challenges, New Frontiers, and the Role of Science Diplomacy in Sustainable Cooperation”. The discussion brought together speakers from diverse horizons in front of an involved audience. This workshop has been placed under the patronage of the Norwegian and the French National Commissions for UNESCO. Among the topics discussed:
- Crucial role of scientific cooperation in the Arctic to connect research topics and avoid simple cumulative work. The goal is to multiply the work capacities without duplicating results.
- The main challenge is to render the cooperation sustainable in a fluid context by strengthening resilient communication networks and diversifying the funding sources. This means inventing new stories and narrative structures to tell populations and stakeholders and imply them in the collective dialogue.
- Science should know no borders as all the countries are interconnected and this means encouraging youth’s involvement through structures such as the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and program such as Emerging Leaders.
- Funding of two young French researchers, Héloïse Caraty and Natan Nault, to take part in the Emerging Leaders program as a result of a partnership between the French Institute and Sorbonne Université. The program centers around an annual theme and includes a 7-day trip through the Norwegian high North landscape. Along the way, the participants meet with local representatives of different sectors and engage in timely discussions of current visions, trends and challenges in the Arctic. Our two French researchers participated in the making of a video about ocean connectivity that you can find below.
The French Institute team plans on participating in the conference next year to keep holding the French spirit of cooperation and involving the youth in taking part to the discussions.