A centre to study the efficient development of the Russian Arctic will open at the Tyumen Industrial University, the region's major higher educational institution, TASS reported citing the university's press service.

"The Tyumen Industrial University is carrying out a strategic project, Increasing the Efficiency of the Russian Arctic Development. The project is to be completed in 2020, by which time a centre for efficient development of the Russian Arctic will have opened in Tyumen and a model will have been built for the comprehensive development of remote Arctic territories," the press statement said.

The project includes, among other things, an international paleoecological expedition around the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area that took place during the 2017 fieldwork season and involved experts from Mexico, Israel and Poland.

Earlier reports said that the Tyumen Industrial University's Arctic development projects also involve researchers from the Neftegazproyekt research, design and development institute. The institute deals with projects involving complex infrastructure development for oil and gas fields, petroleum depots and oil petrochemical plants, including those in the Arctic. The institute's engineers are developing an environmentally safe technology for the disposal and recycling of drilling waste in the Yamal-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous area and the Tyumen Region. They are also working on the development of an integrated technology for monitoring facilities in the Arctic.