On 29 May 2026, the University of the Arctic (UArctic) Assembly welcomed the Swiss Polar Institute as a new member. The Assembly approved 28 new members, representing both Arctic and non-Arctic regions, bringing UArctic total membership to 226. We are pleased to be a part of this growing network of […]
Read More
Travelling from Arequipa to the Valle de los Volcanes in southern Peru is an experience in itself. The road passes through flat desert areas, deep canyons and fertile river oases, and finally reaches high-altitude villages. After a nine-hour truck ride, we arrived in Chachas, a small village nestled in the […]
Read More
Forel expeditionAugust 2025: Ilulissat to Narsaq Glaciers are fascinating in so many ways. Covering larger or smaller areas of continents, they have been shaping Earth’s surface for most of its history. The landscape was already breathtaking from the plane on the way to Greenland. One glacier after another, with the […]
Read More
MEDIA RELEASE – Bellevue / Sion, 13 May 2026 – Following the tragic partial collapse of the Birch Glacier on the Valais village of Blatten in May 2025, Fondation Lombard Odier and the Swiss Polar Institute joined forces, engaging in a multi-year collaboration with the new “IceTools Initiative”. The project’s […]
Read More
The Swiss Polar Institute is pleased to announce the release of its 2025 Annual Report in a newly revised format highlighting SPI’s achievements, financial overview, and strategic contributions to Swiss polar and high-altitude science over the past year. Readers can explore key initiatives, funded projects, services and events as well […]
Read More
New Zealand and Swiss researchers came together at an online workshop on 23 April to explore opportunities for collaboration in Antarctic, polar and high-altitude research. The workshop followed the signing of a joint Memorandum of Agreement between Antarctica New Zealand and the Swiss Polar Institute in 2025 and brought together […]
Read More
I travelled to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, in October 2025 as part of the PolARTS art–science tandem Fire & (A)Ice, embedded in the scientific OptimIce project on microfossils preserved in snow and ice from around the globe. The original plan had been to go jointly on this trip, but due to a […]
Read More
The Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) is pleased to welcome Stéphanie Lacour (EPFL) to its Foundation Board, and Carlo Barbante (Ca’ Foscari), Thomas Frölicher (UNIBE), Margareta Johansson (Swedish Polar Secretariat) and Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley (BAS) to its Science and Technology Advisory Board (STAB). Alongside these appointments, Christoph Hegg (WSL) has been elected […]
Read More
Central Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, 6-7 August 2025. What our local colleague Joki didn’t know, as he steered his Soviet-era pickup truck through the knee-deep river towards our remote campsite, was that we were just dog-tired. As he picked us up, we thought that in two short hours we would be […]
Read More