The Clean Arctic—Vostok 77 expedition has by now become one of the most dynamic drivers of science development in the Russian Polar region. This is the largest high-latitude transcontinental expedition conducted in Russia in the last 40 years. Scientists from 22 research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences and 30 universities jointly undertook the solution to urgent challenges and tasks of the national scale, which are facing the northern regions of our country. At the end of April, the expedition leadership reported on the first results that were obtained in six months—the first steps were taken on 15 August 2023 from Murmansk. The event was held at the TASS press centre.

Dmitry Belov, the acting head of the expedition, told journalists that today the creation of the Ethno GIS map, which will show the most accurate information about important economic, historical and religious objects for the indigenous peoples, is at the final stage. It is a multi-layered map that accumulated the field data of the researchers in a concise form. Also, a map of the USSR's legacy left above the Arctic Circle will soon appear. Abandoned lighthouses, military camps, airfields and other facilities are now in need of either disposal or additional preservation. However, to do this, they must first be found, so the scientists interviewed the local population, travelled the tundra and other ways to overcome themselves in search of valuable bits of information. Then they were transferred to the Clean Arctic Digital Headquarters, where they were used to create up-to-date databases. In addition to researchers and volunteers, artificial intelligence also helps to work with the flow of new information.

One of the most important tasks of the expedition is to work with the indigenous minorities of the North. Research is being conducted on the traditional nature management, linguistic and cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples. This is necessary not only from a cognitive but also from an applied point of view—Dmitry Belov noted that soon, scientists will develop a methodology for obtaining relevant opinions of indigenous communities on certain issues. As world practice shows, today it is still difficult to know the real needs of the indigenous people of the region, which can lead to increased social tension.

In a number of countries, emphasised Dmitry Belov, the inability to find out the true opinion of the autochthonous population within their own self-identity has led to disorders. A promising methodology is also being developed to investigate indigenous peoples' motivation to learn their own languages. This is a very pressing issue—over time, the languages of traditional communities are slowly becoming a thing of the past, and efforts to preserve them have limited effect. The specialists of Clean Arctic are developing a set of special methods that will make it possible to find out how the indigenous people themselves view their native languages, what motivation they have for their preservation and how it can be realised. By the way, at the same time, the researchers collect books in the languages of indigenous peoples—for six months, they have already accumulated 50 of them, and 4 went to the printing house.

The sociological works of the expedition specialists became an important component of the formation of master plans for the AZRF strongholds. The work has not yet been finalised, but the scientists' input has already provided an assessment of the current economic, environmental and social conditions that need to be considered in shaping the space.

On their many travels, Clean Arctic specialists conduct tests of the equipment. One of them is the all-terrain amphibious vehicle Arkhant, which today has already been finalised according to the researchers' comments. In April, already updated versions of this vehicle went to help rescue people in flooded Orsk. The second unit, which was evaluated at the end of the expedition, is the Ursa rover, which has yet to fully adapt to the harsh Arctic climate. In the coming six months, researchers will test in the Arctic drones of all possible types, as well as domestic thermal underwear. The latter is no less important for Polar explorers than complex equipment, and in some moments, it is significantly more important.

Climate change has not been ignored. The current research of the Clean Arctic is aimed at practical purposes—the specialists will deal with fundamental science a little later, in the comfortable silence of offices and laboratories. Today, scientists are actively developing the idea of creating a federal permafrost monitoring system. Its degradation, running side by side with global climate change, is compromising the integrity of buildings, utility infrastructure and roads. One of the proposals was the introduction of public-private partnership, involvement in the formation of geotechnical monitoring system of corporations and companies with competencies in digital technologies, working in the Far North, etc. At the end of April, the scientists intend to present their ideas at a specialised meeting of the Federation Council.