From 23 to 25 October 2023, Swiss Polar Institute’s Executive Director Danièle Rod met with various actors of the Czech polar research programmes. The official visit was organised by the Embassy of Switzerland in the Czech Republic and initiated fruitful exchanges on polar and high-altitude science between the two countries.
A tour of the Centre for Polar Ecology (CPE) at the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and the exhibition Can Tech Save the World? on innovative technological solutions developed by Swiss and Czech researchers and companies in areas such as water, agriculture, e-mobility, recycling and energy, initiated the exchange. This was followed by a tour of the Faculty of Science and the Czech collection of Microorganisms of the Department of Experimental Biology at Masaryk University in Brno.
Both offered ample time to present SPI’s mission and activities to the students and to meet with the Deputy Rector and the Head of CPE as well as with the Head and the Manager of the Czech Antarctic Research Programme to explore collaboration possibilities with a focus on early-career researchers and developing synergies on scientific research in polar and high-altitude regions aiming to tackle climate change issues.
Photo credit: © Embassy of Switzerland in the Czech Republic, all rights reserved