by Alöna Roitershtein
My year 2025 began with an Arctic adventure, supported by the ScAN’s ECR Travel Grant, to attend the Arctic Frontiers 2025 conference. Situated in the beautiful city of Tromsø in Norway, the annual conference gathers scientists, businesses, policymakers and representative of local communities, including Indigenous peoples for discussions about the future of the Arctic region. The theme of this year’s conference was Beyond Borders, emphasising the need to cooperate across the national borders in the Arctic and beyond, amidst geopolitical uncertainty and impacts of human activities, felt across the region.
The event was organised by thematic sessions, ranging from the Big Picture sessions, dedicated to discussion of key issues, affecting the entire region, such as the Arctic state of affairs, Arctic security and implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, climate interventions and the cost for going green, among others. These sessions included panel discussions with key policymakers in the region, scientists and representatives of Indigenous communities. Other sessions were smaller and more nuanced, such as science sessions on issues facing Arctic communities amidst geopolitical and economic uncertainty, Eco-based Management systems and environmental impacts of war. In addition, many side events were held in-parallel, discussing relevant topics, such as Indigenous Leadership in research and sustainable energy futures. While many sessions were interesting, important and fascinating, my favourite session was delivered by the Fram Centre, on Communicating Arctic Science, showcasing examples of the ways science can be communicated to the wider audience through means of social media, blogs and even Netflix documentaries.
During this event I had the privilege to showcase my work as well, in the Poster session, that took place at the end of the first day of the event. My poster presented the outcome of my PhD – the Place-based Strategy Evaluation Framework for tourism development. At the beginning of the trip, I felt a bit insecure to present my work in tourism subject, among the fascinating research in the natural sciences, engineering and political sciences, more prominent in this event – but I was wrong. My poster gained interest among attendees, especially as my study was situated in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. While not in the Arctic, the issues facing tourism sector and communities that live in popular tourism destinations across the North are very similar, albeit affected by specific contextual circumstances. All the people I spoke with during the event, upon hearing more about my work, spoke about their experience of tourism sector in the North, from Tromsø to Reykjavík and across the Arctic communities. The issues include cruise, unsuitable infrastructure, pricing out locals, seasonality, dispersal – so familiar to many communities in Scotland. It shows that sustainable Arctic and the North must include sustainable tourism development as an integral part, which strengthened my confidence in my work.
However, collaborating on research with our Northern neighbours is not simple, since the European funding, with some exceptions, is out of reach for Scotland. Upon attending the session discussing the newly launched Interreg Cluster Funding, and speaking with the Interreg NPA representative, it was clear that there is significant desire to collaborate on the Arctic and near-Arctic research with Scottish partners but finding appropriate funding opportunities is difficult post-Brexit. That said, the need to expand the networks with our Arctic and Nordic colleagues in a range of disciplines is ever greater, since issues that affect the Arctic region echo much wider. I am therefore very grateful to ScAN for supporting Scottish researchers in attending these events, where we are very welcomed and our work is valued and relevant, to address the issues that affect us all. As such, for me this trip provided a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with colleagues I worked with previously on Arctic-related projects, meet in-person with people I only ever spoke with online, and make new connections that perhaps one day will lead to fruitful partnerships.
While the days of the event were packed with insightful sessions, and I wanted to attend them all, I did manage to find some time during the very short daylight hours to explore the beautiful Tromsø. I decided to venture out beyond the town centre, which is dominated by tourist shops and attractions, to explore the more quieter part of the city, and walk up the snow-clad residential streets towards the local nature reserve Prestvannet. The park features a lake, which was of course frozen, and lovely views to the surrounding mountains. The time of day was perfect, with the low winter sun settling down for the evening, flashing everything in bright orange colours. Like in a fairy tale.
That evening I was also lucky enough to the Northern Lights right from my hotel room window, which culminated my unforgettable experience above the Arctic Circle.
