About the Expedition

As part of the One Ocean II Expedition with S/S Statsraad Lehmkuhl, UiT The Arctic University of Norway has chartered the vessel to sail through the Northwest Passage in the autumn of 2025. The backbone of this expedition will be the 10 ECTS interdisciplinary course Arctic Future Pathfinders – A journey through the Northwest Passage, focused on anticipatory skills and aimed at master’s students and doctoral candidates. The course will be in English, and it will be open for both UiT and partner universities. In addition, UiT and partners will develop a dedicated research program specially designed for the expedition through the Northwest Passage. 

The course will be offered twice, with 60 participants being enrolled for each run, once when sailing from Nuuk, Greenland to Cambridge Bay, Canada, and once when sailing from Cambridge Bay, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska.

Please note that the offering of this course is subject to the completion of all necessary institutional permits and approvals. While every effort is being made to secure these permissions in a timely manner, the university reserves the right to modify, delay, or cancel the course based on the status of these approvals.

Participation of Indigenous and local communities

A certain number of berths is reserved for participants from Indigenous and local communities. We also want to invite Indigenous knowledge holders and elders to ensure the transmission of diverse perspectives and knowledges about the Arctic and foster cultural exchange. As such, the course becomes a platform for sharing diverse perspectives, experiences, and ways of knowing, enriching the educational journey for all the participants.

The legacy of the voyage

The voyage represents an excellent platform for research. Most likely, Statsraad Lehmkuhl will be escorted by other ships from Nuuk to Anchorage. Thus, at any given time there will be two ships from where research can be conducted. We foresee a wide range of study areas including biodiversity, microplastic, physical oceanography, human health, marine studies, atmospheric studies, governance, socio-economic aspects, imaginaries and much more.

Finally, the expedition will be linked with the Norwegian national research initiative Future Arctic Ocean and the forthcoming International Polar Year in 2032/33. The students and Indigenous and local youth that we aim to bring with us today, will in 2032 be Arctic academics and knowledge holders that we rely on to provide the insight and knowledge we need for a sustainable management of a rapidly changing Arctic. These future researchers and decisionmakers will greatly benefit from the inter- and transdisciplinary competences and anticipatory skills that we will help develop as part of the voyage through the Northwest Passage. This will be the true legacy of the voyage.

Arctic diplomacy

We plan three high-level events with prominent stakeholders at the ports in Nuuk in Greenland, Cambridge Bay in Canada, and Anchorage in Alaska. We will focus on Arctic Council related themes in Nuuk, given that Denmark has the Chairship of the Arctic Council at the time of our visit, recently handed over from Norway. In Cambridge Bay, we want to listen and learn about the diverse local and Indigenous perspectives about the Arctic. At last, in Anchorage, we will focus on climate and security. The Norwegian Embassies in Denmark, Canada, and US are supporting these events. Our ambition is to gather representatives of Indigenous and local communities, highly ranked politicians, representatives from local, regional, and national authorities, private sector, and academia.

Time schedule

• The One Ocean II expedition starts in Bergen in Norway 7th of April 2025, and will visit Tromsø in Norway 16th to 22nd of April.
• The UiT part of the expedition through the Northwest Passage starts in Nuuk in Greenland 5th of August and ends in Anchorage in Alaska on the 4th of October, with planned stops in Gjøa Haven (22nd to 26th of August) and Cambridge Bay (29th of August to 2nd of September) in Canada.
• The ship is expected to return to its home harbor Bergen in Norway on the 17th of April 2026.

Here you can read about the One Ocean expedition in 2021–2023.