The Ministry of Science and Higher Education Russia supported the application of the Karelian Research Center RAS for creating a laboratory for integrated study of the Arctic. In the first stage, the application received a positive review from the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in the second stage, the Ministry resolved to finance the project. In total, more than a thousand applications were submitted to the competition, of which two hundred were supported.

The new laboratory will be created under the Science and Universities National Project. The core of the team will be researchers younger than 39 years: doctoral students, research fellows, and university graduates. The Laboratory for Integrated Study of the Arctic will be created within the Department for Multidisciplinary Research KarRC RAS.

The priority research area for the laboratory will be the issues of environmental safety in the Arctic. Researchers will investigate the socio-economic and environmental transformations in Arctic regions of Russia, analyze the interplay of economic and environmental processes in Arctic countries, benchmark the experience and prepare recommendations on applying the green practices developed during the implementation of EU-Russia cross-border cooperation programs in Russian Arctic regions. Scientists will look into the environmental aspects of the EU Arctic policy, implementation of the EU Arctic programs in North European countries. The research is going to be carried out in collaboration with scientific institutions and universities of Russia and friendly countries, first of all, China and India.