Swiss Polar Institute – Supporting Swiss polar science

The kitchen tent with Walker Hill in the background. © Éliot Sicaud, all rights reserved

The Polar Access Fund focuses on early-career researchers who plan to undertake an initial field trip to a polar region or a remote high-altitude area. The research conducted during the field trip must be inserted into an existing overarching project (e.g. to enlarge its scope or for comparisons) and be related to […]

The SPI Foundation Board appoints new Chair and Vice-Chair

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The SPI Foundation Board appoints new Chair and Vice-Chair

The Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) is delighted to announce the appointment of Frédéric Herman (UNIL) as Chair and Christian Wolfrum (ETH Zurich) as Vice-Chair of the SPI Foundation Board. Their mandates will start on 1 January 2025. Earlier this year, the SPI also welcomed Virginia Richter who succeeded to her […]

© 2024 Clémentine Moulin / Tara Ocean Foundation, all rights reserved

Floating platforms for polar science at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2024

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Floating platforms for polar science at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2024

Environmental impact, best practices and the importance of complementary expertise were at the heart of the exchange during the Polar Dialogue and plenary sessions “Floating Platforms in Polar Seas: Sailing for Science” at this year’s Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. On this occasion, organisations operating various platforms in polar seas […]

ENO_02 Balleny Islands, aerial photo mapping survey

SPI to support Swiss participation in Antarctica InSync

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SPI to support Swiss participation in Antarctica InSync

Antarctica InSync (International Science & Infrastructure for Synchronous Observation) is a new major programme led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The programme aims to better understand, protect and sustainably manage the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in the framework of the UN Decade […]

Access to the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen

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Access to the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen

Following the agreement between Université Laval (ULaval), the Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ) and the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI), researchers based in Switzerland can have access as visiting scientists to the vessel’s annual Arctic missions as part of collaborative research projects between teams from the SPI network and researchers from […]

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SPI Exploratory Grants & SPI Technogrants 2024 – Calls for proposals are open

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SPI Exploratory Grants & SPI Technogrants 2024 – Calls for proposals are open

The calls for proposals for the SPI Exploratory Grants and SPI Technogrants are now open! The SPI Exploratory Grants support Swiss-based scientists active in polar regions (including remote high-altitude regions such as the Andes and the Himalayas) by allowing them to launch new short-term ideas such as pilot projects, fund additional fieldwork, or initiate […]

Featured Images

Polar Access Fund: Artificial ice reservoir (ice stupa) built to enhance water management in Ladakh

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Polar Access Found: iceberg fill the Narsarsuaq fjord in Greenland.

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SPI Exploratory Grant: Fieldwork on vegetation patterns above Zackenberg Research Station in Greenland

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Calving iceberg on Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, summer 2023. The scale is hard to capture, but this iceberg is rising up more than twice the height of the calving front which is approximately 130-150 meters high.

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A Polar Access Fund grantee is recovering GPS data in order to monitor a landslide near the Portage glacier (Alaska).

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SPI Technogrant: Prototype for a low-cost and robust electrical resistivity tomography monitoring system for remote permafrost environments

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Polar Access Fund: Challenging access to fieldwork site on a debris-covered glacier in the Garhwal mountain range in northern India

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Field & Summer School: International Geochronology Summer School, Switzerland

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SUPPORTING SWISS POLAR SCIENCE

NEWS

The Polar Access Fund 2025 call is open!

The Polar Access Fund 2025 call is open!

The SPI Foundation Board appoints new Chair and Vice-Chair

The SPI Foundation Board appoints new Chair and Vice-Chair

Floating platforms for polar science at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2024

Floating platforms for polar science at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2024

SPI to support Swiss participation in Antarctica InSync

SPI to support Swiss participation in Antarctica InSync

Access to the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen

Access to the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen

SPI Exploratory Grants & SPI Technogrants 2024 – Calls for proposals are open

SPI Exploratory Grants & SPI Technogrants 2024 – Calls for proposals are open

Explore all SPI funded projects

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