This new agreement creates a framework for diverse joint academic activities, including exchange of students and academic staff, joint research activities, participation in academic meetings, and exchange of publications and academic materials. Liaison offices will be established in both universities to develop and promote cooperation, and the joint activities are expected to begin before the end of the spring term.
Both universities will put most effort into cooperation in Arctic social sciences, a field they have been jointly developing during the recent decade. Both the University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre and the EUSP Centre for Arctic Social Studies are vibrant international research communities sharing common interests and goals which will be developed and enriched under the new Memorandum of Understanding. “I am extremely enthusiastic about this partnership, as research into the social aspects of the developments in the Arctic is more timely than ever”, states rector Ylä-Kotola of the University of Lapland.

The idea of the Memorandum was proposed during the senior UoL–EUSP academic leaders’ meeting in St. Petersburg on March 28, 2017, attended by Rector Mauri Ylä-Kotola, Directo of the Centre for Social Studies Professor Nikolai Vakhtin as well as the President of UArctic Lars Kullerud and Vice-President Outi Snellman. The agreement was formally signed on April 25, 2017 by the rectors of the two universities, Prof Mauri Ylä-Kotola and Prof Oleg Kharkhordin.


University of Lapland: Profile
Located in the city of Rovaniemi, on the Arctic Circle, the University of Lapland is an international, multidisciplinary university whose areas of expertise include Arctic affairs and tourism research.
Originally established in 1979 to provide higher education opportunities for those living in the far reaches of northern Finland, the university has now become an important educational institution for the entire country. The University of Lapland has turned out every fourth lawyer, every third university-educated expert in art and design, close to ten percent of the social scientists, and many talented educational professionals in Finland.


University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre is a national and international hub of information and centre of excellence that conducts multidisciplinary research in changes in the Arctic region.
http://www.ulapland.fi/InEnglish/About-us
http://www.arcticcentre.org/EN/About

European University at St. Petersburg: Profile
Founded in 1994 with the active support of the city of St. Petersburg, the European University began operating as an elite graduate school in the social sciences and humanities in 1996. From its inception, the mission of EUSP has been to meet the needs of Russian social development by training a new generation of teachers and scholars in the best Russian and Western traditions. Over some 20 years, EUSP has gained an international reputation for the superb scholarship of its faculty and the training of Russia's best and brightest graduate students at the highest international levels.
EUSP Center for Arctic Social Sciences is an emerging research center focusing on socio-anthropological studies of the circumpolar region.
https://eu.spb.ru/en/about
http://eu.spb.ru/arctic