The interdisciplinary PhD and Post-Doc summer school Arctic Ocean Governance as a Multifunctional Challenge was held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard 2^nd to 9^th August 2015. The summer school was co-organized by the Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research (NVP), the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC).The student particpants published in January 2016 the paper Assessing the added value of the recent declaration on unregulated fishing for sustainable governance of the central Arctic Ocean in the journal Marine Policy.

The week-long summer school brought together a group of 18 international early career researchers and 13 expert lecturers covering a wide range of Arctic-related topics. Under the umbrella theme of governance, part of the group's work was to discuss the recent ‘Declaration concerning the prevention of unregulated high seas fishing in the central Arctic Ocean’ signed by the Arctic-5 nations in Oslo in July 2015.

Whilst it is not legally binding, the timing and nature of its signing as well as the contents and wording hold implications for a variety of stakeholders, not limited to the Declaration’s signatories. Furthermore, the potential social, economic and political impacts of the Declaration are underpinned by the Arctic’s unique climatic and ecologic dynamics, which are poorly understood. By amalgamating the wide spectrum of early career attendees’ backgrounds, including political science, diplomacy, economics, energy, biology, computing, remote sensing and marine geoscience, the paper Assessing the added value of the recent declaration on unregulated fishing for sustainable governance of the central Arctic Ocean was an exciting culmination of the group's activities and will was published in the journal Marine Policy in January 2016.

Full reference:

Shephard, G.E., Dalen, K., Peldszus, R., Aparício, S., Beumer, L., Birkeland, R., Gkikas, N., Kourantidou, M., Ktenas, P., Linde, P.W., Marazzi, F., Pincinato, R.B.M., Radianti, J., Schartmüller, B., Stübner, E.I., Varnajot, A., Vullierme, M., Zhilina, I., 2016. Assessing the added value of the recent declaration on unregulated fishing for sustainable governance of the central Arctic Ocean. Marine Policy v.66 p.50-57 doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2016.01.013