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Arctic Research in Iceland Icelandic Universities
There is a total of seven universities in Iceland. All of them engage in Arctic research in some manner, whether it be an occasional research project, or an entire programme and institute dedicated to an aspect of Arctic research. The universities are instrumental in educating the next generation of Arctic scientists in Iceland. In this section these universities and their connection to Arctic research will be explored. All universities in Iceland participate in the University of the Arctic (UArctic) network, either by providing board members, hosting positions and organising the UArctic Congress and other related events. University of Iceland The University of Iceland is the country’s largest university by any metric and a leading research institute in Iceland. Academics from diverse disciplines within the University of Iceland focus on Arctic and Arctic-related research and teaching. Examples of Arctic-related teaching are the interdisciplinary programme of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), attracting a number of students from all over the world, and the Arctic Circle course offered to all graduate students at the University in connection with the Arctic Circle Assembly. The University actively participates in the UArctic network by providing a board member and hosting the position of philanthropic officer for UArctic and Arctic Circle.34 The University of Iceland is a large and far-reaching institution. Seven study centres connected to the University are operated in rural areas; many of them attend to research based on localised knowledge. The University considers itself responsible for strengthening academia and research everywhere in the country. Consequently, this aspect of the University’s operations is growing rapidly. The University operates dozens of research institutions and centres, which are the venue for diverse research in various fields. Among the most Arctic-related research centres and institutes are the following centre and institutes: The Centre for Arctic Studies, founded in 2013, is run under the auspices of the Institute of International Affairs. The Centre leads interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of Arctic research within the University of Iceland. The main goal of the Centre is to support and conduct research both on a national and international level and to increase cooperation between academia and the public and private sector. The Centre works with numerous international networks and academics in the field of Arctic research and represents the University of Iceland in several UArctic programmes. The Institute of Earth Science was established in 2004 when the Nordic Volcanological Institute and the geology and geophysics sections of the Science Institute, University of Iceland, merged. The Institute runs the Nordic Volcanological Centre, funded jointly by the Icelandic state and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Institute of Earth Sciences is an independent part of the University’s Science Institute and the main site of academic research in earth sciences in Iceland. Research within the Institute is organised into three broadly defined themes: Understanding volcanoes, Environment and climate and Crustal process. The Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences was founded in 2011 to support research undertaken by members of the University’s Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences in the fields of biology, geography and tourism studies, in addition to research conducted by non-academic staff and graduate students. The University of Iceland manages a research fund with the purpose of strengthening research activities at the University. The fund is divided into a project fund and a doctoral fund. Furthermore, the University of Iceland has been leading when it comes to Arctic research with grants from the Icelandic Research Fund.
34 Congress – Congress Portal. Retrieved 15.10.2020: https://congress.uarctic.org/
