Toronto, ON: Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS-Canada) and Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration have formed a partnership to launch a new competition for post-secondary students in Canada, called the Canadian Arctic Research Expedition (CAN-ARX). The partnership will open new avenues for funding opportunities as well as access to world-class subject matter experts (SMEs) to support the competition and the student applicants.

CAN-ARX is an opportunity for students to design an experiment or research project in one of four topics: planetary science, atmospheric science, resource utilization & food production, and remote healthcare. The winning team of students then participate in an expedition in Canada’s Arctic to test the experiment. The Arctic was selected as the expedition region for two reasons: first, its high-fidelity space analogue sites which are relevant to planetary exploration, and second, to engage with Northern youth and post-secondary students by conducting broad outreach initiatives and enabling hands-on research experience. As part of the partnership, Western University will define the research topics that will be solicited from students, will help select the final expedition location in the Arctic, and will assign a Principal Investigator to lead the research expedition in Summer 2022. SEDS-Canada will manage the student competition logistics and planning. This involves writing a student handbook and proposal guidelines, building partnerships with Northern groups for outreach and engagement activities, gathering SMEs to support the selected student teams, finding sponsors for the competition, and keeping the students on track during their experiment development and deployment.