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Arctic Yearbook 2013
Northern Research Forum
for the Nordic countries but also have a distinctly global significance, such as quality of life,
sustainable use of natural resources, energy efficiency, governance, human and environmental
security, and climate change.
They regularly include a group of Young Researchers from various fields, whose research projects
are concerned with Northern issues and the Arctic, and whose often new and unconventional
approaches contribute innovatively to the research forum. The Young Researchers program
provides travel funding for up to 25 PhD candidates and recent PhD recipients, giving them the
opportunity to present their projects at the Open Assembly, where they enter a dialogue with senior
researchers, policymakers, and the public, as well as their fellow young researchers. Training Young
Researchers to negotiate the interface of science and politics is one of the central objectives of the
NRF. The YRs' tasks during the conference include the presentation of their own scientific paper in
a plenary session, taking on the role of "rapporteur" on one or more sessions, active participation in
the discussions and roundtables throughout the Open Assembly, and a final brief oral statement
reflecting their impressions of the conference. The YR's reports, statements, and scientific papers
are published in the conference proceedings. This participatory training, with its emphasis on the
social and political relevance of science, is thought to be of particular importance in today's climate
of global change, which requires new forms of leadership. The NRF Young Researcher program is
undertaken in cooperation with the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the
University of the Arctic.
For the first time in 2013 the NRF Open Assembly was held in collaboration with ENECON
(Evidence in a Northern European Context), a research network of the Nordic states within the EU
programme ESPON (European Observation Network on Territorial Development and Cohesion).
Representatives of the ENECON steering group were Professor Grétar Thór Eythórsson,
(Univeristy of Akureyri, Iceland), Olaf Foss (Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research,
Oslo, Norway), and Professor Heikki Eskelinen (University of Eastern Finland).
The Executive Committee of the Northern Research Forum, chaired by Dr. Lassi Heininen
(University of Lapland, Finland), was in charge of organising the conference.
The next NRF Open Assembly will be held in 2015 – for further information please see