Arctic Connections Fund: successful projects 2022 to 2023

The second round of the Arctic Connections Fund was launched in March 2022 to help Scottish organisations and communities collaborate with partners in the Arctic. It promotes exchange of expertise on shared issues and aims to raise awareness of common ambitions in line with our Arctic policy framework

Scotland-based organisations were able to apply for a minimum of £1,000 and maximum of £10,000. Applications were assessed using a competitive scoring process during May 2022.

The original available budget for FY 2022 to 2023 was £80,000. A total of 30 applications were received, with a very high quality demonstrated, so we have been able to increase the available budget to £90,000, which enables us to fund the following 10 projects:

Ref no: ACF22-04
Grantee: The Polar Academy
Grant: £9,993.60
Title: Summer exchange programme

A cultural exchange between the young people of The Polar Academy and Igdlo Tasiilaq showing everyone the power of what the youth of Greenland and Scotland can achieve together. The mutual purpose for the collaborating partners is to strengthen young people’s coping strategies, self-efficacy, identity development, future possibilities and quality of life.

Ref no: ACF22-08
Grantee: University of Aberdeen
Grant: £10,000
Title: Environmental sustainability of the Inuit community of Pond Inlet at the Northwest Passage (Canadian Arctic)

This project provides an interdisciplinary (environmental engineering & marine biology) approach to the biodiversity of northern Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and the environmental sustainability of key aspects of the Inuit community there. It will survey the energy supply, waste and sewage disposal of Pond Inlet and, where appropriate, provide guidance for improvements. In conjunction with a larger project exploring the marine biodiversity of the Northwest Passage – the natural setting and traditional livelihood of the Canadian Arctic’s Inuit – it will also provide educational materials on the region’s underwater life for the indigenous people living there. 

Ref no: ACF22-10
Grantee: University of the West of Scotland
Grant: £8,412
Title: EALA: engagement, alliance and learning for arts in Scottish and Arctic contexts and commons

EALA will facilitate the co-creation of new Open Educational Resources based on existing and new narratives (written, visual, audio) of Arctic and near Arctic commons and contexts. Using creative methods, site working, archives and community and narrative expert input, Scotland’s “near Arctic” policy and wider ‘Smart Arctic’ ambitions will be explored through story-telling, cultural making and critique. The project has identified four thematic sustainable transition interfaces - Energy, Assets, Landscape and Art - to underpin the OER artefacts. EALA is a Scottish-Arctic alliance between Scotland and Finland for effective educational resource capacity building (OER), enhanced knowledge mobility and efficient partnership working. 

Ref no: ACF22-05
Grantee: Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)
Grant: £8,600.14
Title:   Supporting rural women in Arctic low-carbon transitions: a knowledge network

The transition to a net-zero economy presents an opportunity to develop tailored support for rural women to set up new businesses or take up new roles in the rural economy, rather than leaving their communities to seek work elsewhere.

This project brings together female researchers, policy makers and community practitioners from across Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Canada to share knowledge about how best to support rural women during the transition to net-zero in the Arctic region.

Network members will collate and discuss existing local and regional interventions in their countries to develop evidence-informed recommendations for future policy and longer-term collaboration around this topic.

Ref no: ACF22-02
Grantee: Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) on behalf of the Scottish-Arctic Network (ScAN)

Grant: £10,000
Title: Scotland Model Arctic Council 2 (SCOTMAC 2)

Scotland Model Arctic Council 2 (SCOTMAC 2) is an experiential learning event at which students play the roles of diplomats negotiating consensus on issues of Arctic sustainable development. Following on a successful SCOTMAC 1 in 2022, SCOTMAC 2 will continue to build connections between Scotland and the Arctic by promoting knowledge-exchange and mutual learning between Scottish and UArctic participants on issues such as just transitions, community resilience, rurality and remoteness, and Indigenous rights. It will also continue to link Scottish universities with UArctic counterparts, to embed Scotland in Circumpolar education, and to emphasise Scotland’s Northern status.

Ref no: ACF22-09
Grantee: University of Strathclyde
Grant: £7,795
Title: New Northern Pedagogies: Conversations across The Arctic

This project will provide opportunities for HEI-based teacher educators from UArctic, The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) and the digital, open access peer review journal Education in the North (EitN) to explore Arctic Pedagogy within teacher education across various cultures, communities, and curricula. Through an in-person, three-day symposium we will debate how the principles of Arctic Pedagogy can support teacher education provision across Scotland. Symposium findings and reports will be published in EitN on how the principles of Arctic Pedagogy can support and develop teacher education pedagogy for all learners in Scottish schools.

Ref no: ACF22-08
Grantee: University of Aberdeen
Grant: £7504.21
Title: Arctic Food Sovereignty

This collaboration between the Universities of Aberdeen and Athabasca, as well as between rural communities in Scotland and Indigenous Cree and Dene communities in Canada, will investigate how to promote local food sovereignty to increase diversity and resilience in Boreal forests and associated peatlands.

Ref no: ACF22-01
Grantee: Edinburgh Printmakers
Grant: £6,989
Title: PrintArctic

A print project with Kinngait Print Studios in Kinngait [Cape Dorset] which has earned a worldwide reputation for the quality and originality of limited edition prints made by its member artists.

The project will see a selected Inuit artist work with a printmaker at Edinburgh Printmakers to produce an editioned print for use in a school outreach programme and for exhibition and sale in Scotland and Canada.

Ref no: ACF22-03
Grantee: Glasgow School of Art
Grant: £10,000
Title: Sheilin-bough: exploring the intangible cultural heritage of food in the north through inter-cultural storytelling

This project will bring the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Lapland together to collaborate through shared expertise in creative and participatory practices. It aims to engage participants in their respective landscapes through making, cooking, and storytelling to develop inter-cultural understanding of the key issues facing inhabitants in the Arctic and the north: sustainable food futures, and environmental and social justice. The project aims to build a collaborative platform on which to establish an international network of place-based practitioners with an interest in the intangible cultural heritage of food, from cultivation and preparation to communal consumption.

Ref no: ACF22-06
Grantee: Social Enterprise Academy
Grant: £10,000
Title: Arctic Connections: Scottish and Canadian Interculturalism in Place-based Social Enterprise

Community-led social enterprise is an established vehicle for enabling the sustainable development of remote rural communities across the Arctic and Arctic fringe. These communities are all culturally diverse. Community-led social enterprises must reflect the communities they serve but also take learning and insight from diverse cultures – both ‘local’ and ‘non-local’. This project will bring together practitioners in this space across Northern Canada and Northern Scotland, in a collaborative learning programme to identify best practice in this process.