Appointment of Arctic Five Chairs – Anastasia Emelyanova and Mervi Heikkinen to represent the University of Oulu

The Arctic Five is a partnership between Luleå University of Technology; UiT The Arctic University of Norway; Umeå University; the University of Lapland; and the University of Oulu, whom together aim to lead the way on key Arctic issues. The mission of the alliance is to advance and share knowledge, develop education, and create innovations for the advancement of our region and a sustainable Arctic.

As part of the Arctic Five’s flagship Chairs & Fellows programme, the Chairs initiative represents a group of scholars with the will and capacity to form original research and education alliances. Thus today, the Arctic Five institutions have collectively appointed 15 Arctic Five Chairs – all of whom are highly ranked scholars from across the human, social, natural and technical sciences.

Dag Avango, Co-director of the Arctic Five, and head of the Chairs initiative, states that:

”These appointments will help build a strong foundation for the Arctic Five alliance, and the collective efforts of our Chairs offer great potential for the stimulation and growth of cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary research and education.”

This inaugural group of chairs represents a new collaboration format for the Arctic Five, and each chair has defined their scope of collaboration by framing their research focus and plans, including potential linkages with educational activities.

The two prominent researchers from the University of Oulu, appointed as Arctic Five Chairs are:

Anastasia Emelyanova, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Thule Institute, whose research interest include Arctic and northern health and well-being, policy, healthy ageing, age-friendly community, and public spaces.

Mervi Heikkinen, Docent and University Researcher at the Faculty of Education, whose research interest include big-data, epistemic contribution, gender equality, higher education, human capabilities, intersectionality, and Indigenous knowledges.

The funded term for each Chair is 2 years (2022-2024), with the possibility of an additional 1-year extension. All appointments corresponding to this round will formally commence on June1st, at which time the chairs will begin establishing and leading their respective crossdisciplinary group of colleagues from other Arctic Five universities and beyond.

For more information, visit the Arctic Five website at: www.ArcticFive.org