After a large number of applications, interviews and careful consideration, 18 individuals were selected for the final ARENA-II program: 7 Americans, 5 Canadians, 3 Russians and 3 Danish (Greenland). Over half of the final cohort identifies as indigenous.
The Russian group includes Margarita Pashkina, Project Manager for National Technological Initiative, Moscow; Ekaterina Sofroneeva, PhD Student in Economics and Business Admin, University of Vaasa, Finland; Yunona (Yuna) Tkachuk, Project Manager, InEnergy Group, Moscow.
Research interests, fields of work and innovations of the Russian ARENA II group are linked to energy, alternative energy sources and new eco-technologies in remote Arctic settlements. Yury Vasiliev, Executive Director of the Institute of Arctic Technologies, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and head of the AHEAD project becomes a mentor of the Russian ARENA-II group.
The ARENA-II realization was scheduled for 2020 but due to the current pandemic situation project leads decided to postpone all planned events for 2021. If the situation stabilizes, ARENA leads will move forward with the three on-site sessions: in May 2021 in Nunavut (Canada), and then in July in Fairbanks and Kodiak (Alaska, USA) and in October in Iceland, ARENA reports.
Russia represented by Yuri Vasiliev, head of the AHEAD project and Executive Director of the Institute of Arctic Technologies, MIPT, sits on the ARENA-II Steering Committee and supports the initiative to develop and implement renewable energy technologies in the Arctic. During Russian Chairmanship in the Arctic Council in 2021 – 2023 Russia will actively support ARENA-II as an important project for the Arctic regions.
More information about the ARENA-II:
http://arena.alaska.edu/
https://arctic-council.org/en/projects/arctic-remote-energy-networks-academy-arena/