Greenland is attracting more and more international researchers from various disciplines who are carrying out increasingly extensive projects. Most of them focus on climate research. In addition to other natural science research projects, there are also humanities projects on culture, language, anthropology and history. While the numerous projects produce important findings, some of which are significant for the entire world population and especially for the Greenlanders themselves, hardly any of it reaches them. The Greenlandic government has therefore drafted the first national research strategy with a strong focus on the local population.
Up to now, international research in Greenland has often been conducted in such a way that research teams come to the country, collect their data and later publish the results in scientific journals. There is hardly any contact with the population and the Greenlanders usually do not learn anything about the results.
The Greenlandic government now wants to change that with the national research strategy. “The vision is to create a good framework for research in Greenland so that research benefits our own society. At the same time, Greenland must be able to facilitate research in the country so that it can continue to contribute to and host international research at a high level,” writes the Greenlandic government in a press release.
The new research strategy, titled “Research – The Path to Progress,” which was developed jointly with Greenland’s research community and will cover the period from 2022 to 2030, focuses on four main objectives:
- Research must be anchored in Greenland.
- Research must support sustainable social policies.
- Research results must be easily accessible to all.
- Research efforts must be conducted at the international level.
“In order for the goals to be realized, I call on everyone, from young to old, from public to private, and everyone in the research community to contribute their knowledge and experience so that we can do research on our own terms in Greenland,” Peter Olsen, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Church, said in the press release.
According to Minister Olsen, the government will work to ensure that more funding is made available for research that will, for example, enable Greenlandic research institutions to compete internationally in Arctic research.
In addition, the strategy also includes the establishment of a research portal that will provide an overview of all research projects conducted and implemented in Greenland. According to the Arctic Hub, there is a great need to create an overview of the numerous projects in order to know who is researching where and on what.
“To support Greenland’s great research potential, a better overview would be a good start,” Anna-Sofie Skjervedal, Arctic Hub secretariat manager, tells Sermitsiaq AG. “At the Arctic Hub, we see that there is a lot of interest in research in Greenland, for example, through inquiries from international researchers around the world.”
With the help of the portal, research projects will be made more easily accessible to Greenlanders and will include information such as subject, participants, status and geographical location, as well as links to more detailed information.
The strategy will now hopefully lead to Greenlanders not only being more involved in studies conducted on their land, but also receiving and benefiting from the research results.
Julia Hager, PolarJournal
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