The proposed research project “Arctic Visible: Picturing Indigenous Communities in the Nineteenth-Century Western Arctic” (ARCVIS) investigates the visual representation of indigenous people and their local Arctic environment in the nineteenth century, a period that saw intense exploration in the region. Hundreds of sketches, paintings, and prints of indigenous people and places in the Arctic were created by travellers from lower latitudes. Yet, the dominant and enduring imaginary of the Arctic is of a space devoid of people. The project will counteract the critical focus on ice and hostile environments in the sciences and humanities and present the peopled western Arctic (Greenland, Canada, Alaska) that was encountered by ‘explorers.’ Through the analysis of picture and text in archives and published nineteenth-century texts, it will strive to give ‘voice,’ to the indigenous people who were key to the success or failure of expeditions from the south. The research is highly topical, at a time when rapidly warming Arctic regions are threatened by intense exploitation for their resources. A key element of the innovative project is the collation and interpretation of the material through an open access online geospatial platform, which combines the visuality of exploration and travel with digital methods that seek to bring out the richly contextual information often bypassed in visual documentary records. The production of the online portal will make the material accessible, contextualised, and relevant for communities in the Arctic, educators, and interested members of the public, as well as academic researchers across disciplines. In contrast to enduring images of ice and vast empty landscapes, the project will show the Arctic as a peopled environment with a rich history and heritage. The indigenous contribution to Arctic exploration in the nineteenth century, often thought to be ‘invisible,’ will be made visible by the research.

Umeå University has been active within the Erasmus Programme since the midnineties. Within theframework of the programme Umeå university has had the opportunity to develop an extensive collaboration with European universities within the areas of research, teaching, education development and students and staff mobility. This was Umeå University’s first successful round of application for ICM. We were granted all mobilities applied for. Within the project we collaborated with three partner universities in three countries. These partner universities were quite new to some of the rules and administration of the Erasmus+, therefore it entailed a lot of preparation to facilitate the practical arrangements before, during and after the project. Apart from the Transbaikal State University in Russia who already had a cooperation with Umeå University within Tempus, and an existing exchange agreement, we had to make new routines for the collaboration with the other institutions. In order to prepare for the application and the project we had many meetings with the initiator (from departmental level within Umeå University). We also included other relevant parties from the department such as leadership, study advisor and economic administrators. This enabled a very clear and concise preparation plan and also facilitated the cooperation between International Office and the departments involved. One main selection criteria for the project was that the departments could provide information that the partner university was devoted to the project. We have continued to work in accordance with our International Strategy for Education and the European Policy Statement in matters of forming partnerships and collaborations. The objective with internationalisation is to create a qualitative education at all levels of study. An important aspect for maintaining and increasing the level of internationalisation at Umeå University are mobility activities for students, teachers and staff. Erasmus + International Credit Mobility brought a new dimension to our existing mobility within Erasmus+ (with programme countries) bringing in new perspectives as well as new cultural aspects. It also enabled exchange of students and staff from other countries dependent of the funding mechanism provided through the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility scheme. Number and type /profile of participants:Kosovo/University of Prishtina:SMS- inbound from Kosovo-6 studentsSTT- outbound to Kosovo- 1 staffSTA- outbound to Kosovo- 1 staffSTA- inbound from Kosovo- 2 staffRussia/Transbaikal State UniversitySMS- inbound from Russia- 2 students STT- inbound from Russia- 4 teachers practical trainingUkraine/ the Institute of Combustion and Advanced Technologies, Odessa I.I.Mechnikov National University:SMS- inbound from Ukraine- 9 studentsSTA- inbound from Ukraine- 7 teachersSTA outbound to Ukraine.- 9 teachersAll planned mobilities for incoming students were completed. For staff we used 16 out of 18 mobilities with Ukraine and 4 out of 8 was used for Kosovo. This had to do with heavy work load for teachers who originally planned to go on a teaching exchange.Even if the departments were sometimes new to the routines for Erasmus +, all the activities were carried out very well. The coordinator at the department had regular contact with the coordinator at the partner country institution in order to better prepare the exchange and cooperation. Outgoing staff had the possibility to inform and prepare the student mobility in the sending country during their staff exchange. This made it possible to have a more mutual understanding of the procedures regarding student exchanges. It also made it possible to inform the students and staff in a timely manner and to ensure a very transparent and qualitative process. Each department was responsible for planning the structure regarding the exchange of participants in accordance with our internal procedures. The International Office at central level had the overall responsibility regarding the management of the project. It included applying for and reporting of the project, administration of documents and distributing the grants. For incoming exchange students housing was arranged.All parties report positive impact and development as a result of the project. The participants from all countries have been satisfied with their mobility period. The longer term benefit from the project is the learning outcome from participating staff and students, as well as bringing in international competence and culture to the universities within teaching and course development. The collaborations within this project has inspired participants to continue with or start-up additional projects such as collaborative articles (some already published) for academic journals and participation in each other’s conferences. This indicate a desire for continued collaboration in the future.

Umeå university has been active within the Erasmus programme since the mid nineties. Within the framework of the programmeUmeå university has had the opportunity to build up an extensive collaboration with European universities within the areas of research, teaching, education development and students and staff mobility. We have developed well- established strategic processes to ensure that partnerships are appropriate and mutually beneficial in order to ensure sustainability and quality to our education. Our partners complement and bring a new dimension to our programmes and we strive to have a reciprocity in our exchange. When collaborating, we put emphasize in educational standards but also the ability to provide our students with a wide variety of social and cultural experiences. As well as bringing in international competence and culture to the university within teaching and course development, our staff and students also contributes to enhancing Umeå universitys profile as a international prominent university with a high quality in teaching and education. Our objectives have been to continue our efforts to increase mobility and cooperation at the same time adding an international dimension to the education which will increase the quality of the education as well. We strive actively towards these objectives using the possibilities that are offered within the Erasmus programme. Our mobility activities are aimed at all levels of studies and all personnel directly related to study and research activities. By offering the possibility to both study and work abroad we will be able to equip our students with a wide knowledge that stems from intercultural awareness from all over the world and prepare them for working life within an international area.Another objective is to offer working and teaching environment with international dimensions in order to raise the level of educational quality and to become a more attractive workplace. For staff, international exchange provide the opportunity for continuous pedagogic and scientific development and professional and personal development. To increase the number of teachers and staff that spends a shorter or longer period abroad will be beneficial for several purposes. It will enrich the curricula at the home university, giving the students at home the chance to take part of international education both from teachers who spent a period abroad as well as from teachers coming from our partner universities. It will also, serve as encouragement for students, in promoting the possibility to study abroad and preparing them for a different learning environment. There were 179 outgoing students and 37 outgoing staff during the project. There has been a slight increase in the number of outgoing students, and a large increase in the number of students for training. Students who traditionally not go on an exchange due to different reasons, cease the opportunity to go on training instead. As regards to the teachers and staff, we can see a decrease in the number of outgoing teachers and a slight increase in the number of staff. We have faced the same challenges this period as in the past. Ensuring that information reaches students and staff when working at central level is a challenge and something we constantly strive to improve. The most popular destination for students to study is UK, or universities with courses in English. The faculty of Social Sciences are most represented when it comes to outgoing students, where Umeå School of Business and Economics have the larger parts of outgoing students. Teachers and staff going on exchange has made it possible to explore and develop new ways of thinking, and new organizational skills. It has also strengthened our brand and reputation with our partners, and enabled closer collaboration.To be able to develop our work within the programme and internationalisation we constantly strive to benchmark ourselves with other universities, both national as well as international. This is made possible by our participation in national and international networks. We share good ideas and disseminate good examples internally as well as externally. Departments who usually do not participate in the Erasmus programme- scheme, have had the possibility to also create networks during staff weeks and teaching exchanges which will be beneficial for future projects and cooperation. New agreements have been signed with prominent universities thanks to collaboration and exchanges via Erasmus. Closer contact and networking with both national and international partners, with seminars, staff weeks and visits, has enabled us to share good practices and benchmark.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

Microsporidia are emerging pathogens of high priority that infect humans, and most animals. Microsporidiosis can be life-threatening and cause severe damage in the eyes, brain, muscles, respiratory, and urinary tracts. These obligate intracellular parasites also present a unique case of reductive and divergent evolution. They possess the smallest eukaryotic genome and unique cellular features such as the smallest eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes and a specialised infection apparatus, the polar tube. Inside the host, microsporidia replicate through distinct life stages to form infective spores that are released into the environment upon host cell lysis. However, the molecular events involved in the pathogen’s commitment to each life stage, host cell lysis, formation, and eversion of the polar tube, remain unclear. This lacunae in understanding microsporidia are due to a lack of biochemical or structural data and the absence of systematic in vivo studies. Thus, studying this medically and economically relevant pathogen is critical for designing drugs and preventive regimes to curtail their transmission. Towards this, MsInfection aims to provide the first comprehensive and mechanistic insights into microsporidian life-cycle progression and host cell invasion. The life cycle stages of microsporidia species with varied tissue tropism will be analysed structurally and transcriptomically at the single-cell level, using Electron Microscopy (EM) and single cell-RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A combination of these transformative technologies will enable a systematic determination and visualisation of the molecular events driving intracellular development, and the assembly of infection apparatus and tissue niche selection.