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BB Research:
Beyond Borders

A framework for research, dialogue and collaboration beyond borders — an interdisciplinary center an 78° North, working across science, society, culture and the arts.

About

It's a long-term platform, not a single event. The programs unfold across residencies, field schools, research collaborations and public formats — connecting institutions, communities and disciplines. This diary is the first of them: the story of how the center itself was made.

BB Research is an international scientific and educational center based in Barentsburg, Svalbard, one of the northernmost inhabited settlements in the world. It brings together research, education, field practice and artistic inquiry, and builds programs for researchers, students, artists and interdisciplinary teams who treat the Arctic as a place of observation, collaboration and long-term change.

Because the map ends here and something else begins. Svalbard's status is fixed by the 1920 Svalbard Treaty — a rare international zone of shared access. Barentsburg and Pyramiden are living settlements shaped by that history; places where research, memory and everyday Arctic life sit side by side.

Why Barentsburg?

So, what is BB Research?

Directions

The Beyond Borders philosophy operates
on three levels.

Programs

Four ways of working with the Arctic

The Arctic isn't only territory — it's a space of questions, ideas and new connections. BB Research is being built around four ways of working with it: residencies, field schools, research partnerships and public programs.

Moving from isolated academic silos toward open, collaborative field
ecosystems.

Beyond the silo

Public Programs & Knowledge Exchange

Workshops, dialogues and public events connecting the center to its communities.

Artistic & Interdisciplinary Residencies

Time and space for artists and researchers to work with the Arctic as material and question.

Educational Programs & Field Schools

Lecture-and-field formats for students,
run on-site in Barentsburg.

Research Collaborations

Join to work with partner institutions across the social,
natural and diplomatic sciences.

Residency

The program follows artistic practices tied to landscape, memory, sound, visual material, industrial heritage and community, and from August 11, the daily story shifts from how the center was built to what is being made inside it.

When the diary ends, this begins. The first BB Research residency brings together artists and creative practitioners from around the world to work with the Arctic as a place, a material and a question.

First Residency: Arctic is
a mirror of global change

Volume: Vol. 1 · closed

Location: Barentsburg, Svalbard

Dates: August 11–25, 2026

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Meet the people behind the first BB Research residency. In the coming weeks, we’ll share their stories, their practices, and the ideas that bring them to Barentsburg.

Vol 1 is full — the doors for this season are closed. Follow where it goes next in Updates.

The Residents

Location

Where the work actually happens

Pyramiden

Developed by the Soviet Union from the 1930s, Pyramiden preserves a unique layer of Arctic industrial and cultural history. Today, it hosts selected BB Research programs and interdisciplinary projects.

Barentsburg

Founded as a mining settlement in the early 20th century, Barentsburg has been a center of Russian presence on Svalbard for nearly a century. Today, its scientific infrastructure and active local community make it the main base for BB Research.

Partners

Not built
alone

The Arctic brings together different countries, disciplines and ways of seeing the world. BB Research grows through collaboration with our academic, cultural and institutional partners, connecting Arctic research, education and international exchange.

Moving from isolated academic silos toward open, collaborative field
ecosystems.

Beyond the silo

Qingdao University

Qingdao, China