Siberian Federal University

The organizers were Northern (Arctic) Federal University, University of Tromso and Norwegian Polar Institute. The expedition was supported by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Russia and Norway, Federal Agency for Hydrometeorology, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, and Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce. The expedition's participants were fifty three representatives of educational and research institutions, federal and regional agencies, business community and mass media from Russia and Norway.

The expedition attendees visited reseaarch centres at Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk. Later, they boarded 'Professor Molchanov' research ship and followed Nansen's path from Archangelsk to Dudinka and down the Enisey to Krasnoyarsk. The expedition included research seminars and sessions to discuss international cooperation in Arctics, historical problems and the issues of the future for Russia's and Norway's northern neighbours, the issues of frontier cooperation as a resource for developing northern territories, geopolitical cooperation, issues of indigenous peoples. Other issues to be discussed were climate change and Arctic biodiversity, climate change near the North Pole and how it affects global climate.

«The expedition is a startingt point for the future cooperation among Siberian Federal University, Northern (Arctic) University and the University of Tromso to study Arctics' current issues, its future and how to explore it effectively and sustainably, — Artem Shakhmatov said. — There is no doubt that such expeditions are quite useful. It might be also useful to hold an Arctic expedition boarding a ship with an international team of faculty and students, a sort of an Arctic university».