The Commission of Senior Officials of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) met in Arkhangelsk, Russia, on 22 March 2016 with the participation of representatives of the European Union and ministries of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. The meeting was held within the frames of the Russian Federation chairmanship in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The participants discussed the perspectives and priorities of cooperation in the Barents region and received also the reports of the Joint BEAC-Barents Regional Council working groups in culture, health and related social issues, and education and research. Marina Kalinina, the Chair of the Joint Working Group on Education and Research (JWGER) and NDI Co-Coordinator, presented an analysis of university network cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, reported on projects that have been realized within the WG activities, and focused on expertise that the Barents higher education institutions provide in the field of Arctic research, in accordance with the tasks of the RF chairmanship.
The Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU) plays an active role in realization of the RF BEAC Chairmanship program. On April, 7th, NArFU will host the next JWGER meeting, and in June the university will be a venue for the ministerial meeting of the Ministers of transport of BEAC member states and for the Meeting of Steering Committee of the Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Area (BEATA).
The program of the Russian Federation Chairmanship program can be found here: http://en.beac-russia.com/
