The program is a part of the Arctic Council EALLU Project and the UArctic EALÁT Institute "Training of Future Arctic Leaders" Program.  

This pilot education program is to develop, implement and refine a pilot education course for Arctic indigenous youth on food innovation and business idea planning.
The course pilot will be a 1 week intensive course of 7.5 ECTS credits, held in Bodø, Norway March 31-April 5, 2019. The course welcomes young indigenous students from the pan-Arctic region, including Fennoscandia, Russia, North America and Greenland studying at a Bachelor level education.

Food innovation leadership is a practical oriented course focusing on creative processes identifying business ideas and development of new business concepts related to traditional indigenous knowledge, on food culture and resources. The course provides students with an introduction to how new business ideas are identified and further developed into viable business concepts, including traditional indigenous knowledge on food production and conservation as a foundation for innovation and business models.

This initiative is a part of the Arctic Council EALLU program 2015-2019 which is supported by Norway, Russia, USA, Canada, Denmark, Saami Council and Aleut Intl Association in the Arctic Council, led by the Association of World Reindeer Herders (WRH).

Multiple drivers of environmental and social change are now evident across the Arctic, including climate change, changed use of the Arctic, globalization and increasing human activity. These changes are also occurring on top of many other challenges that indigenous peoples´ societies are already facing.

In order to ensure successful adaptation also for indigenous peoples and their traditional livelihoods and societies, one must make sure that they are also able to make use of the opportunities arising from Arctic change. That is what the Arctic Council EALLU project attempts to do, and that is the contextual background of this education course.

The course is partly based on the award winning food book “EALLU – Indigenous Youth, Food Knowledge & Arctic Change“ from ICR/WRH. This book by Arctic indigenous youth won the award for the Best Food Book of the World at the 23rd Gourmand Awards in Yantai, China May 26, 2018 in competition with 1,372 other books from over 70 countries.

The application can be accessed at the website.

Contact for more information:

Assoc. Prof. PhD Bjørn Willy Åmo, Nord University, Business School.
Email/ phone: bjorn.w.amo@nord.no // +47 75 51 72 45
Executive Director Kjell Stokvik, CHNL/ Nord University.
Email/ phone: kjell.stokvik@nord.no // +47 75 51 76 55
Executive Director Anders Oskal, International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR).
Email/ phone: oskal@reindeercentre.org // +47 99450010
Prof. PhD Svein Disch Mathiesen, UArctic EALÁT Institute at ICR.
Email/ phone: svein.d.mathiesen@reindeercentre.org // +47 90524116