We present: “The Sermilik Handbook for a Safe, Inclusive and Responsible Arctic Research Culture”
How can polar fieldwork serve as a model for research culture in academia? In November 2025, three University of Graz groups were awarded €5000 funding for innovative research culture interventions. The University of Graz is now home to an initiative that links research station quality, researcher wellbeing, community partnership, and international polar science.
As one of our three ambassador grant projects, this initiative seeks to fill a gap in polar fieldwork, addressing culture, ethics, and power dynamics. The project was born out of the work on the University of Graz Polar Research Station in the Sermilik fjord.
The project group develops a professional framework for Diversity, Ethics, and Decolonial management, anchored in a station handbook and a structured, continuous feedback system.
Designed to proactively counter the personal, social, and structural inequalities often amplified by remote and confined polar field operations, this framework ensures a safe, welcoming, and responsible research culture for all participants, particularly students and early-career scientists. This initiative positions the Sermilik Station to lead by example and become a best-practice role model for international polar research.
Learn more directly from the project team, chiefly Florina Schalamon and Andreas Trügler, alongside Gertrude Saxinger, Wolfgang Schöner, and Julius Nielsen (contact: andreas.truegler@uni-graz.at, florina.schalamon@uni-graz.at).
In our Collegiality Showcase, the Research Careers Campus Graz showcases people and networks which shape our research environment here in Graz - towards a more collegial, friendly and diverse academia, where all research talents can thrive.