The University of Lapland is pleased to announce the appointment of two Chairs to The Arctic Five network, an alliance of five universities in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. Nominated researchers are Senior researcher Tanja Joona and Professor Outi Rantala.

The Arctic Five is a partnership between Luleå
University of Technology; UiT The Arctic University of Norway; Umeå University; the
University of Lapland; and the University of Oulu, whom together aim to lead the way
on key Arctic issues. The mission of the alliance is to advance and share knowledge,
develop education, and create innovations for the advancement of our region and a
sustainable Arctic.

The Chairs initiative represents a group of
scholars with the will and capacity to form original research and education
alliances. Thus, the Arctic Five institutions have collectively appointed 15 Arctic
Five Chairs – all of whom are highly ranked scholars from across the human, social,
natural and technical sciences.

– These appointments will help
build a strong foundation for the Arctic Five alliance, and the collective efforts
of our Chairs offer great potential for the stimulation and growth of
cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary research and education, says Dag Avango,
Co-director of the Arctic Five, and head of the Chairs initiative.

This inaugural group of chairs represents a new collaboration format for
the Arctic Five, and each chair has defined their scope of collaboration by framing
their research focus and plans, including potential linkages with educational
activities. 

The two prominent researchers from the
University of Lapland, appointed as Arctic Five Chairs are Tanja
Joona, Senior researcher in Northern Political Economy, and Docent in
Public International Law at the Arctic Centre and Outi Rantala, Professor at the Faculty of
Social Sciences.

– The Arctic Five Chair-position together with
the multidisciplinary team and network will seek external funding to deliver
high-quality research on the vulnerability and resilience of the Arctic environment
and societies and co-develop options for sustainable development that meets
environmental and social standards and, by so doing, fulfills the needs of future
generations, says Joona.

Outi Rantala sees that the position of
Arctic Five Chair enables developing further the ongoing joint research and teaching
activities in the diverse small tourism units at member
universities. 

–  The research group will focus
on envisioning alternative approach to Arctic tourism that is based on respect
towards the carrying capacity of human and non-human nature, giving also our
students a possibility to engage in recent, international research on Arctic
tourism, Rantala describes. 

The funded term for each
Chair is 2 years (2022-2024), with the possibility of an additional 1-year
extension. All appointments corresponding to this round will formally commence on
June 1st, at which time the chairs will begin establishing and leading their
respective cross-disciplinary group of colleagues from other Arctic Five
universities and beyond. 

For more information,
visit the Arctic Five website at: www.ArcticFive.org