Researchers Receive Grant to Combat Health Disinformation in Canadian Arctic

In a pioneering research initiative, experts from King’s College London will investigate the impact of health disinformation in the Canadian Arctic, addressing a growing concern that threatens both public health and regional security.

The project, titled “Navigating Online Risks for Trusted Health Emergency Response in the North” (NORTHERN SHIELD), has secured funding through the Supporting Impactful UK Arctic Science Engagement program. Led by Dr. Filippa Lentzos alongside colleagues Dr. Gemma Bowsher and Dr. Fawzia Gibson-Fall from the Department of War Studies, the research will run from October 2025 through March 2026, culminating in extensive fieldwork across Arctic communities in February 2026.

“Traditionally, disease outbreaks have generally been treated as purely a health issue. But in today’s context, health and security are inseparable – from threats of biological warfare and sabotage to research accidents and disinformation campaigns,” explains Dr. Lentzos, highlighting the project’s foundational premise.

The Arctic region faces unique vulnerabilities to health misinformation due to its dispersed populations, infrastructure limitations, and linguistic diversity. These challenges became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when false narratives about vaccines and treatments intersected with historical mistrust of government and medical institutions among Indigenous communities.

The region’s growing geopolitical significance compounds these concerns. As climate change opens new shipping routes and intensifies competition for natural resources, the Arctic has become fertile ground for information influence campaigns with far-reaching implications.

Dr. Bowsher notes that while much attention focuses on speculative risks like prehistoric pathogens released from melting ice, “the more immediate threat is disinformation – targeted narratives that exploit community vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions. This is an area where research has been limited.”

Evidence suggests foreign-state actors have already weaponized health disinformation in the Arctic, blending anti-vaccine rhetoric with Indigenous sovereignty concerns, environmental issues, and anti-Western narratives. These sophisticated campaigns undermine both public health interventions and democratic resilience.

“The information space itself becomes the battleground,” Dr. Bowsher explains. “You don’t need to tamper with biology directly to cause harm – simply manipulating narratives can generate real health consequences through fear, mistrust, and panic.”

NORTHERN SHIELD will conduct fieldwork in Iqaluit (Nunavut), Kuujjuaq (Quebec), and Inuvik (Northwest Territories). The team will collaborate with regional partners including the Nunavut Research Institute, Kativik Regional Government, and various Indigenous-led organizations. Through interviews and participatory workshops with health professionals, Elders, youth, media representatives, and emergency coordinators, they aim to provide one of the first systematic mappings of health-related disinformation in the Canadian Arctic.

“What we’re doing is collecting new empirical data on the Arctic: mapping the key narratives, identifying the actors pushing them, and examining their impacts on the communities on the ground,” Dr. Lentzos says.

A central objective is co-developing culturally grounded, community-driven strategies to strengthen resilience against disinformation during health emergencies. The findings will inform the Arctic Council’s Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response framework, potentially shaping international approaches to health security.

“This project is about generating evidence that can be transformed into actionable frameworks, tailored to unique Arctic communities but with lessons for other regions too across the world,” emphasizes Dr. Lentzos.

The initiative builds on King’s College London’s established leadership in disinformation research, particularly around weapons of mass destruction, extending that expertise into the strategically important Arctic region.

The international research team brings unique credentials to the project. Dr. Lentzos, a Norwegian national and internationally recognized expert on biological threats and disinformation, is joined by Dr. Bowsher, a medical doctor specializing in health-security intersections, and Dr. Gibson-Fall, a global health security scholar. Both Bowsher and Gibson-Fall hold dual UK-Canadian citizenship, giving the team strong personal and cultural connections to Arctic states.

By combining diverse disciplines and international perspectives, the NORTHERN SHIELD project exemplifies King’s commitment to addressing complex global challenges at the intersection of health, security, and society while producing research that directly benefits vulnerable communities.