Challenges involved in circular economy usually require a multidisciplinary expertise. The overall goal of the Network is to enhance networking and exchanging of knowledge among the experts of various disciplines on national and international level.

“The aim is to maintain the development of circular economy between the universities. Our know-how of acting in arctic areas can be utilized on the development of circular economy activities in the arctic regions. It is inspiring to get the opportunity to work with the colleagues around the World!” says the leader of the network Ph.D. Sanna Tyni from the Lapland UAS.

Co-operation between the universities and scientific organisations will provide an opportunity to learn from the specific features of each arctic area. The arctic areas as an intrinsically challenging operating areas require the knowledge of arctic conditions and impacts of long-distances on the activities. There has been already discussions about what possibilities the economical point of view of the circular economy is offering for the people in the arctic areas.

In October 2021, the network had its first official meeting via Teams. Experts from the different universities discussed about the activities which network will launch during the first year. Some of the ideas were concerning about arranging seminar or perhaps a meeting in the Spring 2022 and planning of new projects. There was approximately only half of the network’s members present in the meeting, therefore these discussions will continue in the next meeting. Lapland UAS is preparing a Teams Channel for the network to ease out the collaboration and sharing information between the meetings.

More information about the network and its members on the Thematic Network on Circular Economy webpage.

Tyni, S 2021. Global collaboration in the UArctic Thematic Network of Circular Economy, Lumen Journal 3/2021, Lapland University of Applied Sciences, 26.10.2021, referred on 29th of Oct. 2021.

Network Leader Ph.D. Sanna Tyni, Lapland University of Applied Sciences, sanna.tyni@lapinamk.fi

Circular Economy Network presentation is available here