Umeå University (UmU) is northern Sweden’s flagship university and was was founded in 1965 and is Sweden's fifth oldest university. Today, it has a strong international and multicultural presence with students, teachers and researchers from all over the world (~35,000 students and ~4,600 employees). The aim of the university is to continue becoming one of Scandinavia's best environments for study and research and meet the challenges of an ever-increasing global society. UmU is one of Sweden’s most comprehensive universities within all areas of scientific research. UmU conducts groundbreaking research within several areas e.g. Biogeochemistry, Ecosystem Dynamics, Energy, Infections, Plant and Forest Biotechnology and Social Welfare Research. A specific example of Umeå University’s world class research is Emmanuelle Charpentier who was awarded the Nobel Prise in Chemistry for discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors and was active at Umeå University when she made her ground-breaking finding. The Department of Ecology and Environmental Science (EMG) has ~40 researchers and 20 PhD students. EMG’s research has an emphasis on Arctic regions and climate change. Research areas at the department include biogeochemistry, evolutionary biology, paleolimnology, ecology, including restoration and river ecology, and fluvial geomorphology. EMG works closely with stakeholders (e.g., County Administrative Boards, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management) involved in management and restoration of rivers. The department is a leader in fluvial geomorphic research, river restoration and climate change-adaption of rivers in Sweden.

Research equipment for field measurements of rivers and hydraulics, including a robotic total station, ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profiler), and ADV (acoustic Doppler velocimeter). The Deparment of Ecology and Environmental science runs the Climate Impacts Research Centre, an arctic research center in Abisko, Sweden (68° N), which has infrastructure to support research in remote arctic rivers.