DANISH GRANT AND SCHOLARSHIP POLICIES TOWARDS RUSSIA IN 2011–2021

Abstract

The paper deals with issues of cooperation between Denmark and Russia in Arctic research and academic mobility projects, making an emphasis on scholarship and grant policy. Despite the fact, that international cooperation in research and education is one of the core priorities in both Arctic strategies, before the year 2022 it was functioning in specific conditions. Scholarship and grant policy appeared to be a «soft power» tool for Copenhagen due to research topics, concentration of project management in Danish hands and disproportions in student mobility scholarship programmes. Interaction between Russian and Danish researchers has not been a subject to special attention from Danish authorities and foundations. On the contrary, researchers from both countries interacted within investigating the issues of the Arctic region actively. Even international turbulence after 2014 did not affect it: both countries stated that the «Arctic vector» is to stay aside from any turbulence. Expanding the scholarship programmes for Russian researchers in order to support their mobility to Denmark, Greenland and Faroe Islands enforced this idea. So did formal prioritization of cooperation with Russian research and educational institutions in Arctic research in 2021 for grant support. Though turbulent situation in 2022 led to suspending the interaction, it is clear that there are formal and informal grounds to restore it upon normalization. That fact will require revisiting the previous cooperation experience and implementation of the best grant and scholarship practices by Russian relevant agencies.

Keywords

• denmark
• international cooperation
• grant policy
• joint research projects
• arctic
• cooperation support programmes