Siberian Federal University

The International Historical Research Expedition to honour Fridtjof Nansen 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. Artem Shakhmatov from SibFU's International Department attended the expedition and spoke about the history of exploring Siberian Arctics.

About Nansen

Fridtjof Nansen is one of the most intersting people in global history. He had numerous talents: he was a distinguished scientist and explorer, a politician, writer, inventor, and athlete.

In September 1913, the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen travelled across the Arctic Ocean from Norway to Siberia up the Yenisey river. Later, he boarded the Trans-Siberian and travelled to the Far East and then back to Saint Petersburg.

The Arctic, its exploration and preservation is an important study field for SibFU's researchers. In 2010, SibFU hosted the international conference 'Siberian North and the Arctic Facing Global Challenges of the XXI Century' with almost 200 attendees (researchers, politicians, the representatives of business community). SibFU's researchers spoke about the Arctic developing in a global context, resource potential of the Siberian Notrh, transport infrastructure, international collaboration, and building an efficient environment.

In addtition, the university develops several projects in economics, ecology and sociology of the Arctic.

• developing a system of space monitoring to study how shipping affects the melting ice;
• developing GLONASS technologies to meet the Arctic needs;
• non explosive underwater drilling;
• developing super-strong frost-resistant materials made from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, the materials substantially increase the resource resistance (3-11 fold);
• housing construction technologies, for example, building environmental housing where energy is biologically obtained;
• projects on constructing transportation systems for exploring Russian North mineral deposits;
• climate research supervised by Academician Eugene Vaganov, research findings are extensively published in international journals;
• researchers from the Institute of Law, SibFU, work on the international law problems related to the Arctic exploration and on labour law problems related to attracting labour to northern areas;
• geopolitics of exploring the Arctic and the problem of dividing the Arctic areas, this research is done by SibFU's sociologists.

SibFU's Research Centre for Northern Aboriginal Peoples studies Aboriginal Peoples' economic and social conditions and develops recommendations on changing regional policies to improve important social and economic indicators.

SibFU's researchers collaborate with other Siberian universities. For example, SibFU's study of information management for providing security in the Arctic area was presented in Novosibirsk. The conference 'Security in the Arctic' was hosted by the Novosibirsk State University and Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch.

SibFU's research library hosted the digital exhibition 'The North and Arctic: areas of development' which featured papers written by anthropologists, art historians and other researchers (including researchers from SibFU).

SibFU has recently participated in the preliminary negotiations with the representatives of the University of Tromso (Norway). The two universities agreed on the texts of collaboration and academic exchange agreements. The university intends to collaborate with other Norwegian research institutions to study the international law, ethnography, oil and gas problems, history, environmental problems, etc.