What does geopolitics look like from Northern Norway rather than Oslo? FNI researcher Iselin Nemeth Winther is starting a PhD to explore how geopolitical change and growing military activity are understood and experienced locally in the Arctic.

Ten years after leaving Colombia, Viviana Meixner Vásquez is preparing to return with a new perspective and a new role: as a PhD researcher studying forests, food security and genetic resources in the Colombian Amazon.

How do you go from barely getting through high school to a fully funded PhD at the University of Cambridge?

What is it like to be an early career researcher at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute? Four young researchers talk about open doors, close collaboration, Norwegian working culture, and being given trust and responsibility early in their careers.

In June 2025, Empowered Futures member Larry Ibrahim Mohammed visited our partner institution, the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, for a two-week practicum. Read what inspired Larry's visit and his reflections on this memorable experience.

From Fridtjof Nansen’s dream of a secluded haven to today’s lively research community: this is a personal reflection on returning to Polhøgda, where scholarship, friendship, and gentle intellectual friction continue to shape lives and ideas under the good birch tree.

Erdem Lamazhapov (30) grew up with a researcher mum and attended youth science conferences as a teenager in Russia. He is now completing a PhD on China’s Arctic policy and has recently secured a permanent position at the FNI, where he has worked since his Master's.

'Becoming a research professor before turning 40 was a goal,' grins the newly promoted Research Professor.