To empower Arctic early career professionals means to give them tools to understand challenges and embrace opportunities to study, create policy, and live in a rapidly changing region. Through events, publications, and networking, The Arctic Institute engages and empowers early career professionals to understand Arctic challenges, pursue research to address them, and connect with their peers to meet tomorrow’s opportunities.
Network North is The Arctic Institute’s professional networking event series for early career and emerging leaders in fields associated with the Arctic region. To co-create inclusive, equitable research projects, policies, and support systems for the Arctic, we first need to be an inclusive pan-Arctic community. Focusing on young professionals and emerging leaders, but welcoming to all, Network North events offer an informal space to chat, share, and find new friends. From bars in Oslo, Norway to bookstore cafes in Washington, DC, we host regular Arctic happy hours in cities across North America and Europe.
Follow your Network North initiative via our Events Page!
Since 2007, the High North Dialogue conference series, hosted by the High North Center for Business and Governance, has brought together emerging and established Arctic leaders to Bodø, Norway to discuss the dimensions of the changes taking place in the Arctic. As a key partner – since 2013 – The Arctic Institute has helped bring hundreds of students, diplomats, and business professionals to the High North each year, to learn from and debate with different perspectives on the future of the Arctic. The Arctic Institute has provided support by promoting the Dialogue in the months’ up to the event, leading the strategic social media outreach on event days, and helping the organizer assess and better understand how to improve upcoming years’ conferences and the High North Center’s future work. Special attention has been on ensuring that young voices have been incorporated into the conference program. Through the tandem Masters and PhD courses, the Dialogue helps to engage future leaders in constructing a meaningful debate about the Arctic’s most pressing issues.
In recent years, the High North Dialogue has introduced the High North Young Entrepreneur competition. Three start-ups have an opportunity to pitch their business ideas to 350 conference participants and compete for the main prize. In its first year, The Arctic Institute had the opportunity to present Corey Ellis, co-Founder of The Growcer, the award for creating a modular food solution. By taking lightly used shipping containers, the Grower can create a state-of-the-art farming system using hydroponic technology and precision climate controls to reduce Arctic food security.
In 2022, The Arctic Institute launched its first-ever conference for graduate students and early career scholars – Polar (In)Securities: The Future of Global Affairs in the Circumpolar North. The conference focused on how global developments will affect the circumpolar north through these forms of security. Geared toward graduate students and early career researchers, the multi-day conference was held online and across time zones to make conference presentations and professional development more accessible for our global audience. The first day consisted of traditional paper presentations. The second day featured roundtable discussions centered on challenging questions about global developments unfolding in the Arctic. The third day invited experts in the field to discuss regional issues in special sessions.
Watch the recordings of these sessions on our Youtube-Channel!