Youth initiatives and student exchanges will be important for creating closer links between Norway and Canada and driving innovation in the North, a Montreal Arctic conference heard on Friday. Taking on Arctic innovation with full Indigenous partnershipsThe Thursday event in Ottawa focused on policy and ocean development and coincided with Norway assuming the Arctic Council’s two-year rotating chairmanship from Russia. The Friday event in Montreal primarily focused on science, research, and business development and emphasized the importance of full research partnerships with Indigenous communities, where their concerns guiding research projects. “A lot of ideas look good on paper, but the question is what will it do socially over 10 years?” George Wenzel, a long time Arctic researcher with McGill University said. “We have a lot of common ground to cover in terms of collaboration; scientifically and politically but also with respect to business and really addressing our sustainability,” Gyakum said.
