The legacy of the voyage

As part of the One Ocean II Expedition with S/S Statsraad Lehmkuhl, UiT The Arctic University of Norway chartered the vessel to sail through the Northwest Passage in the autumn of 2025. The backbone of this journey is the 10 ECTS interdisciplinary course Arctic Future Pathfinders – A journey through the Northwest Passage, focused on anticipatory skills and aimed at master’s students and doctoral candidates. The course is held in English, and is open for both UiT and designated partner universities. In addition, UiT and partners has developed a dedicated research program specially designed for the journey. 

The course is offered twice, with 60 participants being enrolled for each run; the first one should have gone from Nuuk, Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland, to Iqaluktuttiaq/Cambridge Bay, Canada, the second from Iqaluktuttiaq/Cambridge Bay, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska.

A certain number of berths is reserved for participants from Indigenous and local communities. There are also Indigenous knowledge holders and elders contributing to the course, to ensure the transmission of diverse perspectives and knowledges about the Arctic and foster cultural exchange. As such, the course becomes a platform for sharing diverse perspectives, experiences, and ways of knowing, enriching the educational journey for all the participants.

The voyage represents an excellent platform for research. We foresee a wide range of study areas including biodiversity, microplastic, physical oceanography, human health, marine studies, atmospheric studies, governance, socio-economic aspects, imaginaries and much more.

Finally, the course will be linked with the Norwegian national research initiative Arctic Ocean 2050 and the forthcoming International Polar Year in 2032/33. The students and Indigenous and local youth that we aim to bring with us today, will in 2032 be Arctic academics and knowledge holders that we rely on to provide the insight and knowledge we need for a sustainable management of a rapidly changing Arctic. These future researchers and decisionmakers will greatly benefit from the inter- and transdisciplinary competences and anticipatory skills that we will help develop as part of the course. This will be the true legacy of the voyage.

Original time schedule

• The One Ocean II expedition starts in Bergen in Norway 7th of April 2025, and visits Romsa/Tromsø in Norway 20th to 22nd of April.
• The Arctic Future Pathfinders – A journey through the Northwest Passage is presented at the UN's Ocean Conference 2025 in Nice in France in June 9th–13th.
• The UiT part of the expedition through the Northwest Passage starts in Nuuk in Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland 5th of August and should have ended in Whittier, Alaska, on the 4th of October, with planned stops in Iqaluktuttiaq/Cambridge Bay (29th of August to 2nd of September) in Canada.
• The ship is expected to return to its home harbor Bergen in Norway on the 17th of April 2026.

Here you can read about the One Ocean expedition in 2021–2023.