History

The Arctic Centre was founded in 1970 by a group of six scientists of the alpha and gamma Faculties of the University of Groningen. Originally its purpose was to stimulate the study of languages and cultures of arctic and sub-arctic peoples. But during the 1970s, when archaeologists, biologists and geographers joined, the scope of the Arctic Centre widened. It not only became a platform for polar research in the Netherlands, but it also developed a multi-disciplinary research programme aimed at getting a better understanding of the arctic environment and its use by people in past and present times. Nowadays, the geographic reach of the Arctic Centre is extended by including the Antarctic regions as an area of study.

At the start of the 1990s. the Arctic Centre was invited to represent the Netherlands in different Arctic orgnaisations.