The president of UArctic, Lars Kullerud (left) and Keith Larson, Director of the Arctic Centre at Umeå University. Photo: Jørn Berger Nyvoll / UiT
16 June 2026
New initiative to reorganise Antarctic research
How can we strengthen research on Antarctica? This question was at the centre of a panel discussion at the UArctic Congress, which was held in May in Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands. Researchers from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and Australia participated in the debate.
A joint initiative that has gained support in the UArctic (University of the Arctic) is to bring together research communities working on Antarctic issues into a single organisation, which has provisionally been named UAntarctic.
For Keith Larson, Director of The Arctic Centre at Umeå University, it is important that a potential UAntarctic, like UArctic and The Arctic Six, can serve as a collaborative network that strengthens the potential for entering into research agreements. He also sees it as crucial that UAntarctic facilitates the integration of institutions in the Global South and the Global North.
“The cryospheres are interconnected; they are the Earth's cooling systems. All research on the cryosphere and the ocean is mutually relevant for both regions. We need to understand whether what is happening in the Arctic is similar to what is happening in Antarctica, or vice versa," says Larson.
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