NOSNHER

As part of the sanctions set against Russian business and state agencies (not including individual Russian academic colleagues) collaboration in the Barents Euroarctic Region is no longer possible in the format it had before February 24, 2022. NOSNHER 2023 is an adjustment to what is now feasible and brings R & D value for Norway and the Euroarctic north-west. Like NOSNHER, BANHER was largely externally funded and some of its field research focused tourism (see section Borderland Heritage & Tourism). Later undertakings have featured students' CBC small research projects, including joint presentations, as part of virtual as well as on-site workshops where BNS international students worked with Russian students from esp. Murmansk Arctic State University and Petrozavodsk State University on original topics geared to NSRG research interests.

NOSNHER today entails two major endeavors. The first is an initiative to broaden NSRG research and BNS teaching by establishing partnerships at North American research and higher education institutions, see section “Western Turn.” The second endeavor is the field course NOSHNER 2023. It is a combined research and educational component in the BNS spring teaching program in which UiT AUN Campus Alta international students will conduct fieldwork in Subarctic Norway based on sponsorship by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, under leadership by University Lecturer David Agenda. Beside Alenga NOSNHER involve Urban Wråkberg and Peter Haugseth. The focus is on the town of Kirkenes.

This project's research is based on cutting-edge theory and relevant international experience from remote place-renewal and regional development. The overarching aim is to identify and characterize the drivers of innovation in the High North with the East of Finnmark County at center stage. Innovation has become an important rallying call for economic competitiveness and the indispensable link to the future of sustainable development. All the Nordic Arctic countries are paying attention to the facilitation and strengthening of entrepreneurship and innovation. This notwithstanding, very little is known about the factors characterizing policymaking that is successful in promoting innovation both on the local and regional level. It is why the goal of this field research is to empower students to delve into the question of what does innovation mean for the goal of economic and social development in the Circumpolar world?

Contact person:
David Alenga, Department of Tourism and Northern Studies, UiT NAU Campus Alta