Arctic interactions, resilience and global change

The University of Oulu engages in cutting-edge research across disciplines to work responsibly and resolve challenges in the Arctic and globally. Our research helps to combat climate change and safeguard the environment while ensuring ecological, social and economic sustainability for all species. Critical scientific research is key to understanding and responding to these urgent challenges.

Arctic research profile field

For millennia seen as a remote, peripheral frontier, the Arctic has swiftly become a centre. This region is warming two to three times faster than the global average. Biodiversity here is rapidly declining, entire ecosystems now are threatened. As ice and permafrost melt, and ocean levels rise, human and non-human communities are experiencing increasingly devastating environmental and social consequences – not just in the region but across the planet.

At the University of Oulu, 150 scholars from various fields specialize in Arctic research.

Arctic research at the University focuses in particular on two key strands: exploring environmental change and promoting sustainable development (Arctic Interactions) and investigating biodiversity and multispecies coexistence at a transdisciplinary level (Biodiverse Anthropocenes).