Academia in Times of Geopolitical Change

Link to live streaming: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ZdtaUF4zfY?feature=share

These are times of geopolitical change and uncertainty, including for the Arctic. How do academia and research institutions change, or not, with this? This side event addresses this challenge from several perspectives.

On the one side there is the academic freedom and institutional autonomy which, when maintained, offer education and science-based knowledge beyond the urgency of the present. On the other hand, either by context, funding, or societal mandate, academia is constantly in flux, and thus also impacted by current geopolitical change.

In between there is the transition from academia and research institutes’ science-based advice to decision makers, rooted in the institutions’ independent research, to decision makers’ setting the research priorities and what to be advised on.

How do academic leaders manoeuvre this complicated terrain in general?

And particularly for the Arctic, in what ways is the increasing securitisation of research reshaping scientific collaboration? What is the outlook regarding openness, trust-building, and the balance between institutional independence and government control?

We invite the audience to explore the above and more with our competent and engaging panel of institutional leaders, science-based advisors, and political analysts.

Opening remarks :

Sigrun Aasland (Ap), the Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education

Panel:

Mike Sfraga, Ambassador & Interim Chancellor, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Camilla Brekke, Director, Norwegian Polar Insititute

Jonas Stein, Vice Rector, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Lise Øvreås, President, European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC), professor UiB

Andreas Østhagen, Research Director Arctic and Ocean Politics, Fridtjof Nansen Institutt

Moderator: Tor Eldevik, Head of Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen