The National Research Nuclear University MEPhI plans to establish a center for Arctic studies as part of the university, in cooperation with the Kartesh Polar Expedition project.

"Arctic studies have not been a major subject for the university until now, but it will be interesting for us to use our developments in the Arctic," said Maria Ganchenkova, director of MEPhI's program on enhancing competitiveness.

Sergei Bedash, head of the Kartesh Polar Expedition project, said that Russia lacks a center for Arctic studies with a serious engineering-technical approach. As a result, instruments used by marine researchers are mostly foreign-made. He thinks MEPhI could provide technical support for Russian science.

In addition, the fundamental research that MEPhI is involved in could be conducted in the Arctic. In 2017, participants in the Kartesh expedition plan to study cosmic radiation in the Arctic, using detectors of MEPhI's Nevod research and experimental unit.

On December 1, 2016 the Kartesh Polar Expedition project and MEPhI signed an agreement on joint research in the Arctic. Now MEPhI is holding a contest of research papers entitled "MEPhI — Arctic" in which both students and employees of the university can take part. The winners will receive an opportunity to conduct research in the Arctic on board the research vessel Kartesh in 2017.