Press release . The Ocean Incubator Network received funding from UiT - UArctic

The Ocean Incubator Network (OIN), coordinated by Margherita Paola Poto, Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, received funding from the UArctic.

In the years 2023-2025, the OIN will bring together experts, local authorities and education institutions, from across the UArctic to develop integrated research and education programs with the primary objective of accelerating Ocean Literacy (OL) to advance the attainment of SDG4 (quality education and lifelong learning for all), SDG 5 (gender equality), and SDG 14 (protecting life below water) throughout Arctic communities. OIN involves academic staff, students, teachers, pupils of all ages and Arctic indigenous communities in learning about OL topics including marine ecology, blue sustainability, ocean rights and governance. Our primary activity is the OIN interactive workshop where a pilot ocean education program and a curriculum on Ocean Literacy will be developed by participants (month 6). Follow-up activities and milestones include: a co-authored cross-disciplinary publication on OL; footage for a digital library and podcast series on different partners' approaches to OL (month 6-24).

Project partners include:

  • The Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Giuliana Panieri)
  • The Arctic Governance Research Group and Science Communication Department, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland (Stefan Kirchner, Katharina Heinrich, Markku Heikkilä, Anne Raja-Hanhela)
  • The University of Edinburg, Scotland (Sarah Parry and Murray Roberts)
  • The James Hutton Institute, Scotland (Katrina Brown)
  • Women of the Arctic, Finland & Marine & Environmental Law Institute, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University (Tahnee Prior)
  • The Center for Ocean and Society, CeOS at Kiel University, Germany (Annegret Kuhn)

The network also marks an important milestone in the coordination and upscale of existing projects coordinated by the network partners (ECOCARE and Akma2 Ocean Senses) and aims at coaching and mentoring a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers and students across the UArctic and beyond.

Margherita Paola Poto and Giuliana Panieri

We are thankful to Ingvild Svestad for the assistance in the application process and to Juliana Hayden-Nygren for her excellent help in the preparation of the project proposal.