Fulbright Arctic Initiative

Fulbright Arctic Scholars participate in an individual exchange of a minimum of six weeks and a maximum of three months, as well as in-person seminars and ongoing virtual communication, all supporting the scholars’ required collaborative research projects. Scholars are expected to produce: 1) a policy brief based on their group work; 2) one research product of the group’s choosing; and 3) a one-page description of their individual research project objectives, outcomes, and exchange experience.

• Fulbright Arctic Initiative III provides a platform for scholars from across the Arctic region to engage in collaborative thinking, analysis, problem-solving and multi-disciplinary research in three main thematic areas:
  • Arctic Security and Cooperation: The Arctic region benefits from innovative models of international cooperation, particularly in the areas of search and rescue, management of the Arctic marine environment, emergency preparedness for global pandemics and collaborative governance through oversight bodies such as the Arctic Council.  Individual Arctic states have also created innovative models of co-management and self-government with Indigenous peoples. As the Arctic region becomes more accessible, the need for greater attention to Arctic security in all its dimensions—human security, environmental security, energy security, and traditional security—will continue to grow in importance.
  • Arctic Infrastructure in a Changing Environment: More research is needed to understand the environmental changes taking place in the Arctic and the impacts they are having on the built environment. The prosperity and security, and health of the region depend on sound infrastructure for housing, transportation, communications and energy, and emergency response system.  Changes to land, human and marine environments are placing stress on both coastal and inland communities in the Arctic. At the same time, these very same changes are generating interest in the Arctic for energy and mineral resources, increasing tourism, and opening up new fisheries and transportation routes. The global energy transition is placing greater pressures in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions as sources for renewable energy from wind and hydro, as well as mineral resources. Together, these trends provide new opportunities for sustainable development that have the potential to improve life for Arctic communities.
  • Community Dimensions of Health: The health of children, youth, adults, and the elderly is vital to the security of Arctic communities and the region’s future. While Arctic communities are constantly innovating to address their own needs, environmental fluctuations, underdeveloped infrastructures, food insecurities, economic development, infectious diseases, health disparities, and entrenched institutional systems have created challenges for human health and the diverse ecologies of Arctic peoples. Most recently, global pandemics pose an extreme risk to isolated Arctic communities due to under-resourced health care services, transportation challenges and limited housing options. Citizens of the Arctic are looking to engage in research that addresses their concerns and will find ways to improve and sustain human health in the Arctic.
• The Fulbright Arctic Initiative supports research that will inform policy and provide knowledge supporting a more sustainable Arctic future.
• During the program period, Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholars participate in an individual research exchange visit lasting a minimum of six weeks up to a maximum of three months.  Non-U.S. scholar exchange visits are hosted at institutions within the United States and U.S. Scholars conduct exchange visits at institutions within Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, or Sweden.
• At the end of the program, Arctic Initiative Scholars convene for the third and final meeting to share the results of their collaborative work and report on the accomplishment of program objectives and the national and regional implications of their findings. Scholars disseminate policy-relevant recommendations, describe the concrete steps they have taken in implementing their projects and models at the local, national and/or regional level, and share the progress they have made and challenges they have faced in moving their recommendations from theory to practice.