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Mon Projet Nordique / My Northern Project – Competition for PhD Students

Bigue Munger My Northern Project

By Brigitte Bigué, Director, Institut nordique du Québec and Hélène Munger, Partnership Program Manager, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies

The Mon Projet Nordique / My Northern Project competition is a unique opportunity for the leaders of tomorrow to connect with their peers, network with potential career mentors and join in the international dialogue on key issues affecting the future of the Arctic.

The purpose of the competition is to offer twelve PhD students the opportunity to present their research results in a snappy and exciting fashion to an international audience at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland. This session, now known as Lightning Talks, has become an attendee favourite, thanks to the vision of the young scientists who are exploring a range of topics that will help in understanding Arctic development.

For the second edition of Mon Projet Nordique, UArctic teamed up with Institut nordique du Québec (INQ) and Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT). A unique aspect was that six of the participating PhD candidates were selected in Québec by INQ and FRQNT, and six from elsewhere by members of UArctic. The twelve finalists were invited to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly and challenged to present a five-minute summary of their research in layperson's terms to a large international audience, using a maximum of ten slides. The public was then invited to vote for the “People's Choice” award, i.e. the presentation they found the most eloquent and impactful.

The 2018 finalists hailed from Canada (Québec and Newfoundland), Finland, Sweden and Norway. These remarkable students presented their research projects that target a critical issue currently facing northern environments and may result in innovative solutions to solve them. Their topics included the impact of climate change on melting ice and thawing permafrost; the potential for geothermal energy in the North; human security; and sociocultural adaptation of communities in response to the rapidly changing Arctic.

This new generation of scientists addressed the hot-button issues in a sensitive and intelligent manner. The “People's Choice” award went to Kirill Gurvich, a PhD student in social sciences at Nord University, Norway for his presentation “The Sociocultural Adaptation of Refugees in the Circumpolar Region: A Comparative Study of Social Work Practices in Norway and Canada”.

Read more about Kirill's PhD studies

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Table of Contents

  1. Letter from the President

    By Lars Kullerud

  2. Editorial

    By Outi Snellman

  3. New Realities for the Arctic: the Importance of Regional and Circumpolar Cooperation

    By Paula Lehtomäki

  4. Reconciliation and Education

    By Tosh Southwick

  5. What Impact Do We Seek by Funding UArctic?

    By Stine Djørup

  6. Establishing West Nordic Studies in the Land of Maybe

    By Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær

  7. Living in the Landscape

    By Irina Zemtsova

  8. New Alliances – While the Ice Is Melting. Interview with Guest Professor Lotten Gustafsson Reinius

    By Elisabet Idermark

  9. Creating Impact Through Collaboration Between Different Levels of Actors: Developing Arctic Maritime Safety Cooperation

    By Johanna Terva, Saila Heinikoski, Sari Lindblom, Päivi Mattila and Pasi Hario

  10. UArctic Annual Report for 2018

  11. My Northern Project

    By Kirill Gurvich

  12. Northern Governance: Old Ideas, New Challenges

    By Gary N. Wilson

  13. Mobility Matters: Perspectives from Northern Tourism

    By Patrick Maher

  14. The Arctic as a Commercial Food Producing Region

    By David Natcher et al

  15. Arctic Indigenous Films in the Spotlight

    By Liisa Holmberg

  16. Column: Arctic Horror on the Big Screen

    By Liisa Holmberg

  17. Philosophical Perspectives to Arctic Sustainable Development and the Role of Universities

    By Mauri Ylä-Kotola

  18. Education and Training Needs for Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Outcomes of the Permanent Participant Panel at UArctic Congress 2018

    By Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat

  19. Modeling Inclusion and Gender Equality: Our UArctic Opportunity

    By Melody Brown Burkins

  20. Making Gender Equality Plan A in the Arctic

    By Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek and Tahnee Prior

  21. Student Profiles

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