Press release: CoFoam Fungal Biotechnology Wins 2026 Frederik Paulsen Award

The award recognizes scientific and academic initiatives that are action-oriented and hold potential for addressing the challenges and critical needs posed by climate change. The prize comes with a 100,000-euro unrestricted grant intended to help develop the ideas through outreach, engagement, and communication.

The winning initiative is led by Professor Philippe Amstislavski from the University of Alaska Anchorage. His project, CoFoam: Forest-inspired Fungal Biotechnology for Carbon-Neutral and Plastic-Free Arctic Fisheries, is a collaborative initiative with fishermen across the Arctic addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change, plastic pollution, and the growing impacts of warming on Arctic communities, ecosystems and fisheries. Rapid warming is destabilizing housing, infrastructure and ecosystems, while higher temperatures make it more difficult to safely store fish and traditional foods. Warming also contributes to insect outbreaks and increased tree mortality in Alaska’s forests, leading to more frequent wildfires, greater black carbon emissions and risks to human health. At the same time, fisheries and construction in the Arctic and beyond depend heavily on fossil-based insulation. Tens of millions of single-use Styrofoam boxes are used each year to transport fish to global markets and medicines around the world, generating greenhouse-gas emissions and persistent plastic pollution that threatens food security, human health, fish and wildlife.

The CoFoam project leverages the forest microbiome to bioconvert insect-killed trees and other plant residues into safe, carbon-storing cold-chain boxes. In collaboration with fishing communities, the initiative replaces polluting Styrofoam/EPS boxes with high-performing CoFoam boxes that can be produced locally and safely composted anywhere, with potential applications in fishnet floats, buoys and building insulation.

“Winning the Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award is a tremendous honor.” Philippe Amstislavski says. “It is a powerful affirmation of our vision of a blue economy and materials sovereignty for the Arctic communities. We should not need to import fossil-based materials and plastic pollution to ship fish and to insulate our homes. The Award will enable us to work alongside Indigenous and coastal communities and scientists to transform local biological feedstocks, like brush along the roads and insect-killed trees into high-performing insulation for plastic-free seafood shipping and more. It will help propel CoFoam from promising research project toward a practical, community-driven climate solution for the Arctic and beyond.”

The Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award is a collaboration between Arctic Circle and UArctic. To learn more, visit www.uarctic.org/actionaward.

The Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award provides high-level recognition for innovative ideas that transform knowledge into action to help address the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. The prize comes with a 100,000 euro unrestricted grant that is intended to help develop the ideas through outreach, engagement, and communication. The award is named after Dr Frederik Paulsen who has been a prominent supporter of scientific research and collaboration in the polar regions for decades.

Arctic Circle is the largest network of international dialogue and cooperation on the future of the Arctic and our planet. It is an open democratic platform with participation from governments, organizations, corporations, universities, think tanks, environmental associations, Indigenous communities, concerned citizens, and others. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan. The annual Arctic Circle Assembly takes place every October in Reykjavík, Iceland, attracting over 2000 participants from more than 70 countries all around the world.

UArctic is a network of over 200 universities, colleges, research institutes, and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the Arctic. UArctic builds and strengthens collective resources and infrastructures that enable member institutions to better serve their constituents and their regions. Through cooperation in education, research, and outreach UArctic enhances human capacity in the North, promotes viable communities and sustainable economies, and forges global partnerships.

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Arctic Circle:

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UArctic:

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