The Congress continues with the Opening speeches and panel discussion, and a range of high-level science sessions before concluding in Helsinki on Friday, September 7.
On the first day to the Council meeting members voted to welcome twenty new members to the University of the Arctic. The network now has 203 member institutions and organizations.
New Arctic members joining the network are:
- Dechinta Bush University Centre for Research and Learning
- Coast Mountain College
- Higher School of Innovation Management
- Kamchatka State Technical University
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- Lahti University of Applied Sciences
- Nipissing University
- Savonia University of Applied Science
- Sámi High School and Reindeer Husbandry School
- St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television
- Tomsk Polytechnic University
- University of Lethbridge
- University of New England
- Kings Bay AS
- Wilson Center - Polar Initiative
Non-Arctic members include:
- Harbin Engineering University
- Harbin Institute of Technology
- Leeds Beckett University
- Italian Society for International Organization
- Scott Polar Research Institute
During the second and final day of the business segment at the meeting, members of the Council approved five new UArctic Thematic Networks, bring the total number of networks to 47.
The new UArctic Thematic Networks are:
- Thematic Network on Circumpolar Archives, Folklore and Ethnography (CAFE), hosted by the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom
- Thematic Network on Renewable Energy, hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, Canada
- Thematic Network on Smart Societies in the High North (SmartNorth), hosted by the High North Center, Nord University, Norway
- Thematic Network on Arctic Indigenous Skills, hosted by the Sámi Education Institute, Finland
- Thematic Network on Arctic Plastic Pollution, hosted by GRID-Arendal, Norway.
The Council meeting concluded with agreements to organize their next meeting at Stockholm University in September 2019, followed by the next UArctic Congress to be held in Iceland in 2020.