The new Grimsson Fellowship is now open for applications, until 1 July. The Fellowship is a collaboration between the University of Iceland, University of Akureyri, Reykjavík University, the University Center of the Westfjords and the biotechnology company Kerecis, which originates in Ísafjörður.

A group of UW students is travelling to Latvia and Lithuania to take part in a two week Nordplus course on de-populating smaller regions. The course is a 5 ECST international course where students focus on development of regions around the Baltic Sea.

The remaining, modules for the new Students Housing buildings arrived at the harbour yesterday. The new buildings are prefabricated from construction company Seve in Estonia from where the flock of builders also came from earlier this month.

Students on the course Pollution in the Coastal Arctic had a beach clean up on the First Day of Summer last week, not the least to celebrate Earth Day which was on 22 April. The clean up was a collaboration with students from MÍ College; UW students organised the day and the college students participated in the project, hand in results at MÍ and get their work evaluated there.

One of the results from UW participating in NOCCA is a new, exciting workshop on rising sea level which will likely be offered next year. This week, our academic directors attended the 6th NOCCA conference (Nordic Conference on Climate Change Adaptation) in Reykjavík.

Many people have noticed that the new students housing is taking shape by Fjarðarstræti. There will be two buildings and currently work is being carried out on one of them, as it's supposed to be ready for move-in on 15 September.

In the coming weeks, UW master's students will defend their master's theses at the University Center of the Westfjords. The subjects are varied and the students are from both master's programs, Coastal Marine Management and Coastal Communities and Regional Development. The defenses are accessible to everyone through links that can be found in the schedule below. Detailed information about each defense can also be found in our events calendar.

Head of the Icelandic Climate Council, Halldór Þorgeirsson, visited students taking the Marine Protected Area Management course this morning, for an informal talk. Halldór was attending a conference by the Icelandic Forest Service held in Ísafjörður yesterday and took the opportunity to visit UW before heading back.

Students from the course Sustainable Aquaculture struck gold during their field trip to Thingeyri on Wednesday. Instructors Peter Krost and Pierre-Olivier Fontaine took their students to visit Arctic Fish where they learned about its operation and were given a tour of the company at its base in the Blue Bank. After that, the group went out on a boat to have a look at the sea farming docks in Dýrafjordur.

The campaign Íslenskuvænt samfélag - við erum öll almannakennarar just received a grant from the Development Fund for Immigration Issues. That means that last year's successful work will continue and improve this year, with more frequent and diverse program in 2023. A new slogan has been selected now: Gefum íslensku séns! (Give Icelandic a Chance!)