The Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in St. Petersburg together with the Ammosov Northeastern Federal University in Yakutia are teaming  up to develop a lab dedicated to studying the Arctic flora.

All the research will be conducted under the North Science and Education center’s project The North, a Territory of Sustainable Development.

According to Alexander Beglov, the Governor of St. Petersburg, the lab is to be established before the year is out. Its researchers will be looking into the bioactive substances of the polar region’s plant resources.

St. Petersburg, Yakutia and the Northeastern Federal University signed a trilateral agreement in 2020.

“We have visited Yakutia on a business mission. Today, St. Petersburg’s research centers and higher education institutions are integrated into projects of the North Science and Education Center. We are working together on innovative technologies and are therefore contributing to the development of the Arctic zone,” St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov noted.

The new research institution’s specialists also want to establish a reserve facility for the storage of the national collection of culturally significant plants. There are plans to adapt the existing Arctic mines for this purpose. The two-year project is to be completed in late 2022.