BANHER 2023-2026

The BANHER 2023-2026 is a northern studies and thus interdisciplinary endeavor in higher education and research. It aims to build knowledge and exchange of ideas bottom up to further social, economic and environmental sustainability in the high north. BANHER 2023-26 has a circumarctic set of networks partners indluding Icelandic and North American prominent scholars, departments and universities

BANHER 2023-2026 core group
Leader Peter Haugseth; Program coordinator Urban Wråkberg; Senior researcher David Alenga

Our institutional collaborations in Russia have been shelved following Norwegian national directions. Researcher-to-researcher joint work in research and publication continues with trusted Russian individual scholars. We have negotiated and agreed to deepen already productive partnerships in Finland with leaders of the field-based Calotte Academy (Prof. em. Lassi Heininen and Prof. Laura Aikio at University of Lapland). The Calotte Academy is a travelling workshop taking place at least once a year based on an internationally open invitations to MA, PhD and post-doc students as well as senior scholars engaging in northern studies esp. regarding Arctic governance and security policies. A feature of the Calotte Academy is that apart from scholars, professionals and leaders in towns and municipalities in Northernmost Finland, Norway and Sweden are engaged in many of its sessions and town-hall meeting.

BANHER 2023-26 has re-activated and built new partnerships with prominent North American departments at high-ranked universities. The program of Northern and Canadian Studies at School of the Environment of Trent University Ontario and at the University of Alaska at Anchorage are BANHER partners. Comparing syllabi Trent representatives have expressed positive views on opening students exchange, based on BANHER and the CA Not least some major up-dates and revisions made in NSRG related former BNS courses has made these attractive to continue work on in partnerships and new application by internationally exchange of BANHER teachers, joint teaching events and case oriented research projects.

This project's research is based on cutting-edge theory and regional experience from remote place-renewal and development. The overarching aim is to identify and characterize the drivers of innovation in the High North with the East of Finnmark County as the major Norwegian focus and to undertake multifactorial comparative investigation run in common with international partners in the circumarctic. Innovation is today an important rallying call for economic competitiveness and an indispensable link to successful sustainable development. Given several recent measures of e.g. the Nordic Arctic countries to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation up-north, very little is still known about the factors characterizing policymaking that is successful in promoting innovation long-term both on the local and regional level. It is why the goal of BANHER field research is to empower students and senior scholars to delve into the question of what does innovation mean for the goal of economic and social development in the Circumpolar world?

Meeting at UAA April 2023
David Alenga, Peter Haugseth, (unidentified lady), Christie Ericsen and Diane Hirshberg discussing BANHER cooperation on April 28, 2023 at University of Alaska Anchorage. Photo: Urban Wråkberg