Brigt Dale becomes Researcher 1

Researcher 1 at Nordland Research Institute , Brigt Dale. Photo: Marta Anna Løvberg

Career was never an issue. Brigt Dale has been driven by an intense commitment to the environment, politics and society. Now he has been granted promotion to the prestigious Researcher 1 title.

Among colleagues at Nordland Research Institute He is known as the distinctly extroverted and always committed environmental scientist based in his beloved Lofoten. Now two external experts have also found reason to speak warmly of Brigt Dale, by assessing his research career as worthy of promotion to Researcher 1, the department sector's answer to the title of professor. 

The committee determines that Dale's work "more than satisfactorily meets the criteria for promotion."

The main character himself was slightly surprised when he went through his research career and realized how focused it actually was.

– Everyday life as a contract researcher can be experienced as fragmented, with many different projects, he says. 

– When I finally had time to sit down and gather the threads, I discovered a kind of direction, a continuity in my work.

Perhaps this realization is extra satisfying for a man who for a long time bounced restlessly between different jobs and educations, without finding his true calling. For Brigt Dale himself believes that he "stumbled into the world of research."  

Tromsø is calling

The first sign of radical restlessness was that the Lørenskog boy Brigt, at the age of 22, moved almost 1,800 kilometers north.

“I needed a change of environment and started studying in Tromsø. I really enjoyed it there,” he recalls.

After a few years of studying history and anthropology, the trip back to the capital took place, but now "I" had also become "we". Brigt Dale had met a girl from Lofoten. It would turn out to be fateful, but in a good way. The time in Oslo was also the start of family life, and his CV was expanded at Blindern with a Cand.mag degree with a focus on Middle Eastern and Western European studies, and an intermediate course in anthropology.

And then? Newspaper sales at Dagens Næringsliv, a teaching position at Holmlia secondary school in Oslo, odd jobs at the newspaper Nationen.

– I never really figured out what I was going to do. Then some friends of mine from Tromsø told me about an exciting newly launched master's program in visual anthropology, which combined many of my interests, including communication, technology, puppetry and the subject of anthropology, says Dale.

– And also the opportunity to travel, get out into the world, meet new people. The thought of moving back to Tromsø was also tempting.

Nordland Research Career Program

In recent years, Nordland Research Institute systematically worked on career development for Researchers who wants to be promoted from senior researcher to Researcher 1. Brigt Dale is the latest in an increasingly solid line.  

– I am impressed and happy for Brigt, says Iselin Marstrander, CEO of Nordland Research Institute . – He has been working on this for a long time and the feedback from the assessment committee was that this was a solid application.  

Marstrander is also proud of the career program that has been developed at the institute.  

– Each of the last four years we have succeeded in promotion for a new RESEARCHER I This strengthens the expertise and professionalism at the institute and is a good inspiration for others, she says.   

2022: Helga Eggebø
2021: Maiken Bjørkan
2020: Ingrid Bay Larsen

Research life is approaching

In 1999, the couple returned to Ishavsbyen, but with a new, little person on board. Five years later, in 2004, the now 31-year-old Brigt Dale had both completed his major and had another couple of children.

"I couldn't just hang around and study anymore. It was time to grow up. I needed a job," he says.

And then – without having planned it – Dale found himself on the edge of the research world, in the form of a research advisor position at the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Tromsø.  

– We had a study collaboration with the medical university in Arkhangelsk and in connection with these experiences I began to become interested in the connections between environmental challenges and living conditions in the north, and industrialization in the form of oil and gas, both in Russia and Norway.

The desire for knowledge grew and eventually the researcher gave in to his calling. In April 2008, Brigt Dale began as a research fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences at UiT.

A crucial meeting

The next few years were about the risks associated with oil and gas extraction in Lofoten, and why this risk was understood differently locally and nationally. And without the fellow being aware of it, the direction was set here, the path he would follow throughout his entire research career and which in 2023 would culminate in his promotion to Researcher 1.

– The activity on the Norwegian continental shelf and the major controversial issues surrounding energy transition have been the main theme of my research, says Dale.  

– Phasing out oil and gas, and phasing in greener alternatives is a topic I will continue to pursue.

But back in 2008 neither was Nordland Research Institute or promotion on the agenda. However, it was Lofoten. During the work on the thesis, there were many trips to the world's most beautiful archipelago. And when the doctorate was in the can, the whole family moved to Kabelvåg, where the anchor set firmly.

Shortly before the change of address, the no longer so young researcher Brigt Dale met a distinguished and inspiring researcher who would have a huge impact on his career. In connection with a workshop, Nordlandsforskning's Grete Hovelsrud was invited over to Vestfjorden. The fresh and experienced researcher hit it off, and Hovelsrud persuaded Dale to apply for a job at Nordland Research Institute And he got a job.

– Thanks to Grete, I didn't have to spend a single day unemployed and was also allowed to work in and from Lofoten.

From freshman to facilitator

Thus, Nordlandsforskning's Lofoten office was established. 12 years later, the staff has grown from one to six and the founder has gradually become one of Nordlandsforskning's veterans. How has such a restless soul endured so long at the same workplace?

– It is routine that makes me restless, he says. – I need to feel that I am in motion. When I enjoy myself after so many years, it is because the job is dynamic. New people come in, I am constantly working in different constellations, with fieldwork in different places, whether it is Greenland, Finnmark or Russia. This variety is an important reason why I am still at Nordland Research Institute .

Since 2020, Dale has been the research leader for the environmental group, a role that requires experience in the game.

– I enjoy being a facilitator, someone who can help others get into a position to run their own projects, he says.  

– Nordland Research Institute is dependent on autonomous researchers, people who manage to learn how to acquire and run projects. Both the job as research manager and the promotion to researcher 1 give me room to step aside a little more and push forward those who can benefit from the experience I now have.

The judging committee

Rachael Lorna Johnstone, Professor, University of Akureyri, Iceland 

Mark CJ Stoddart, Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Grete K. Hovelsrud, researcher 1 Nordland Research Institute / professor Nord University​​​​