NEWS The European Polar Board (EPB) is an independent organization focused on major strategic priorities in the Arctic and Antarctic. EPB members include research institutes, logistics operators, funding agencies, scientific academies and government ministries from across Europe. Swedish members are Arcum and the Polar Research Secretariat.
Arcum's director was elected new member of EPB Executive Committee
Image Cassie MatiasAt the EPB Plenary meeting 16 October Peter Sköld was elected new member of EPB Executive Committee.
The EPB’s vision is of a strong and cohesive European polar research community, wherein decisions affecting or affected by the Polar regions are informed by independent, accurate, and timely advice from the EPB.
The EPB has a mission to improve European coordination in Arctic and Antarctic research through improved information sharing, optimized infrastructure use and joint initiatives between members.
EPB's Swedish members are Arcum and the Polar Research Secretariat
ImageNOAAThe organization promotes multilateral collaborative activities between members, and provide a single contact point for to the European polar research community as a whole for international partners. EPB advances the collective knowledge of polar issues, particularly in the context of European societal relevance.
Established by the European Science Foundation in 1995, the EPB has been an independent entity since 2015, with its secretariat hosted by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in The Hague. Throughout 2020, the EPB is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, and looks forward to many more years supporting the European polar research community.
For EPB's 25th anniversary celebrations, Arcum's directors sent a greeting on October 8, 2019, and it was published on twitter this week. In the video, you can hear Peter Sköld talk about Arcum being elected as a member and how important this collaboration is for Arcum and Umeå University.
Peter Sköld talks about the collaboration and Arcum in the EPB
Arcum has an interesting and perhaps even important position within the EPB because Arcum's work takes place in the Arctic, and in a country that is both a member of the EU and the Arctic Council. This position that makes insights and inside perspectives valuable for the outside universities and actors, to have a proper understanding of what is going on in the Arctic.
Even if Sweden is a small country, Arcum has around 300 affiliated arctic researchers which actually makes Umeå university one of the major universities within the Arctic. Even if it is a fair balance between all the faculties areas, there’s a rather strong social science profile, and it is important to acknowledge that arctic research involves a lot of different disciplines.
