The portal was formally launched at the Arctic Council summit in Salekhard in late 2006, and has since grown in terms of as content and technology. It now provides access to interactive maps, meteorological data, webcams, monitoring data and an Arctic databank.

articportal.org enjoys the backing of many domestic and international partners and has received funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers, Akureyri Council and Statoil-Hydro. A company has now been founded to look after the portal in collaboration with the parties that helped set it up, including the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

articportal.org has provided technical assistance to various multilateral Arctic organisations, e.g. a newly established federation of young polar researchers, APECS, which consists of almost two thousand researchers and students at universities all over the world.

articportal.org helped the International Center for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR) design its website and is working with Northern Forum, a multilateral Arctic organisation, to create a website and establish a trading network for the Arctic.

A virtual classroom is being developed in collaboration with the University of Edmonton in Canada and several other educational establishments that belong to the University of the Arctic, an umbrella body designed to meet the needs of sparsely populated areas and provide greater access to higher education.

Work is also being done to open a special "community square", where Arctic communities and indigenous populations will have their own websites with access to web equipment, web media and debate forums. The aim is to provide better opportunities to preserve and develop language and culture in a developing environment.