Emerging Leaders 2021

Emerging Leaders (EL) is part of the youth program of Arctic Frontiers and was first organized in 2012. Every year, around 30 Norwegian and international young people have participated in an "educational journey" through the northern Norwegian coastal landscape, from Bodø via Lofoten-Vesterålen to Tromsø to learn about - and discuss social and business development in a Northern Area/Arctic perspective. In Tromsø, the group is challenged to promote their analyses in a separate meeting with the steering committee for Arctic Frontiers and Norwegian and international ambassadors. The program is non-profit. Financing from personal grants from the Research Council and Sparebanken Nord-Norge (a total of 15 participants), and the others have been financed by their own institution or embassies. EL 21 must be different. We want to test a digital platform that we also want to use for future EL events. We will invite around 5 participants from each of the last 5 years to take part in a digital seminar with a studio in Tromsø. We want to connect the cohorts by inviting them into a digital arena the last week of January, ahead of Arctic Frontiers 1-4 February 2021. Climate issues, industry and society have been central to EL since its inception. The goal is to get these approximately 25 former participants to debate climate change and how it affects them personally, their job opportunities and society, and to analyze the impacts in more rural and industrially poor northern areas from communities further south. Furthermore, how they see the implications of Covid-19 for young people in education or at the start of their careers, and for this discussion to become part of the youth voice in Arctic Frontiers when it comes to what implications can be envisioned for development in the High North. The event also provides an exclusive networking opportunity in times when we cannot meet, and thus contribute to the development of a forum and network for support, exchange, discussion and increasing the innovation potential among these young people for sustainable development across the Arctic.