The Emergency and Risk Management Programme has been sending interning students to Nuuk and Sisimiut, Greenland, for about 10 years. They work in the private sector, emergency services, education, and other public services. The content areas of the internships fall mainly within emergency prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and response.
The north2north grant allowed Jacob Taarup and Maren Egedorf to visit internship hosts face to face to enable quality assurance and develop new ideas. They met with representatives from: Ilisimatusarfik, Peqqissutsimut Naalakkersuisoqarfik (Ministry of Health), Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq (Sermersooq Kommune), Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum, Qeqqata Kommune and Qeqqata Fire Department, Naalakkersuisut Upalungaarsimaneq aammalu Qaajasut (Government of Greenland, Contingency Management and Explosives), GUX Nuuk, The Arctic Command, and ARTEK (Arctic Technology Centre at the Danish Technological University).
While the main focus of the trip was on the partners and ensuring the sustainability and quality of internships, it was fantastic to also be able to pay interning students a visit. The Emergency and Risk Management Programme expects to send many more students to Greenland in the future, and also hopes to receive students from Greenland in Denmark at some point.
Since the visit, they have welcomed the contact person from the Ministry of Health to the programme in Denmark, where he spoke to students. Taarup and Egedorf hope for more exchanges like this in the future.
UArctic's north2north mobility program provides opportunities to study, teach and carry out research in different parts of the North.