The Russian institute and the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM) discussed the research directions during a meeting under BRICS’s working group on ocean studies and polar technologies. The expedition will be the first joint event of the China-Russia Arctic Research Center (CRARC), organized in April, 2019.

"The purpose of the first joint expedition is to study the Russian Arctic shelf in Siberia - it is the world’s biggest shelf system, which unites the Arctic and Pacific Oceans and which is a so-called ‘ice generator’," the press service said in a statement. "The scientists will conduct research in marine geology, topography, physical oceanography, marine chemistry and biology in the Eurasian basin of the Laptev Sea, which has not been studied earlier."

The researchers want to receive during the expedition data on marine optics, streams, sediments, phytoplankton, microorganisms, and on how radionuclides spread in the water. The data on greenhouse gases may be used to verify connections between the Arctic’s natural transformation, on one hand, and the global climate change and the Northern Sea Route’s development, on the other hand.